The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-18
.SAUNA CRUZ YELLOW
FEVER AND MOSQUITOES
Continued from Page One)

.
no chances could be taken, that only
vigilance could insure safety. George
P. Castle asked if the danger was di-
minished by change OF climate, for in
stance on boats going to San Fran
cisco and Seattle. Dr. Golfer replied
that it was not because of the habit
of the mosquito of alternating.
DR.. Golfer said he wished to speak
of the statement that flour on the
steamship Californian had been in
jured by the sulphur fumes used in
disinfecting, " because you can't popu-
larize quarantine by destroying car
go. He had studied the chemistry
and the mechanical processes of sui
phur disinfection, and he was satisfied
that the sulphur did not permeate, it
did not 60 beyond surfaces, and he
felt it certain that it could not have
gone beyond the -four sack. He was
strengthened in this opinion by the
fact that the Texan had been treated
in exactly the same way, and had had
-four as part of her cargo, but there
had been no complaints that this had
been damaged. Fred. W. Waldron
suggested that the flour from the
Texan might not yet have got to the
consumer and hence the complaints
might not yet have begun to come in.
But DR.. Golfer replied that it had.
DR.. Golfer said that he believed that
sulphur fumigation might injure
polished hardware, such things as
sewing machines, and if his plan for
a doctor on all steamships coming di-
rect from Salina Cruz were carried
out, a particular part of the hold for
this kind of cargo might be provided,
and the disinfection of it accomplished
by some other means than sulphur, by
some thing that would not injure the
hardware.
T. Give Davies said that he would
like to say something about the Cali
fornian's cargo. Not only had com
plants of the sulphur taste been re-
ceived from consumers here, but from
consumers on the other islands, and as
there was no collision, he thought the
must have foundation.
9 However," he continued, cdr. Golfer
need have no fear that anything that
he does or anything that he orders as
being in his judgment necessary for
the protection of this port, will not
be cheerfully aequiesced in
There was a burst of applause at the
expression of this sentiment.
c. NJ. Cooke asked what would be
the procedure if a case. of yellow fever
should get into Honolulu.
''The first thing to be DONE" re-
piled DR.. Golfer, "would be to put
everyone who had come in the remotest
contact with the patient, under mos
quito nets and keep them there; then
everybody in the whole community
should be urged, and compelled if it
were possible, to i've within screened
doors and windows and to sleep under
mosquito nets"
elf we should ever get it here,
could we ever get rid of it?" asked
W. G. Irwin.
81 should hardly like to say we
could not, f" replied DIR. Golfer, "but
it would be difficult. Still with the
advanced knowledge that we have of
the disease, and with energy and de-
termination we might be able to-
DR.. Golfer said that if yellow fever
should become epidemic in Honolulu
the percentage of mortality would
probably be very high, possibly sixty
per cent. But in a second outbreak
the mortality would be much lower
because there would be a class of i'm
munes.
There is another subject I should
like to speak Of" continued DR.. Golfer.
and that is the recrudescence of
plague which we had some little time
ago. Growing out of that we secured
from the Marine Hospital Service a
man, DR.. Currie, to be sent here to
study the subject. He is a very COM
petent man. He has given six or
seven years to the study of the sub
ject. His sole duties here are to study
the disease. He is at work and has
already done a great deal that is in
teresting. For instance in one day
there were turned over TO him seventy
rats for examination as to whether
they contained plague germs or not
and what was practically a post NOR,
TEN was made on each. But while we
can supply the laboratory appliances,
we have no money for material. Meth
er has the Board of Health. Therefore
l want to ask this body to supply it.
This community seems to suffer a
recrudescence of the plague about ev.
cry so often, and while it don't seem
to do any more harm than, for instance,
scarlet fever outbreaks do in the
states, still if we get the reputation
Of plague recrudescence It will damage
us. I think we ought to go about the
matter in the systematic and thorough
manner that Osaka, Japan, did. There
they made regular examinations for
rats. Rats We're secured from every
part of the city. Each was labeled
with the exact locality vvhance II caDos