New-York tribune., 1909-06-20
PERIOD OF DELAY REDUCED.

"Our policy IS to cause as little delay 10 the
public and the vessel IS possible with safety.
Some years ago a of smallpox aboard ship
meant two three days detention. Now 1t causes
a delay OF FIVE hours. The cabin passengers are
held responsible for the diseases OF the steerage
any more than the dwellers the upper floors OF
an apartment house involved IN case Of i'll
ness in the cellar. There no physical connection
between the cooking and living quarters I'm either
case. We used send the bedding OF sick persons
TO Hoffman Island. Now disinfect bedding
alongside the ship in our disinfecting boat James
w Wadsworth, and return the outfit TO the ship
before she has reached her pier. We can dsinfect
on the way up the harbor. 1t takes about an hour
10 examine q vessel with fifteen hundred persons
aboard. Our staff Of three medical officers, each
with his steamer, has examined twelve thousand
persons between sunrise and noon. This was when
a fog had delayed the steamers below and fifteen
vessels were lined up here at once. II we are no.
titled In advance examine ships after sunset
Powerful searchghts make the decks as light as
day.
Every disease calls for different watchfuIness
and treatment. In plague destroy the rats
aboard ship by burning sulphur in the hold.
Cholera is transmitted by infected food water.
The least suspicious must DO watched, for per-
fectly Well persons may transmit cholera The only
diseases quarantine are smallpox cholera, plague.
yellow fever and typhus fever. Typhoid cases
taken in only the chance that they may
prove be typhus. and the same with chickenpoX
In relation TO smallpox. Ailments like dlphtheria,
measles and scarlet fever are not quarantlabe,
but are reported to the city Board of Health.
Trachoma tuberculosis and the like up the
federal examiners at the immigration bureau. The
various periods of incubation OF diseases enable us
to judge the chances of any particular disease be-
Ing found on j vessel which left an infected port
u certain date and took so many days In cross
ing. For example. the incubation period OF small
pOx is about fourteen days; cholera, nve days;
yellow fever, FIVE days. typhus fever, eight to ten
days Cholera is epidemic In Russia. BY re-
quiring Russian passengers for New York to be
held at Hamburg Bremen for five days before
embarkng, minimize the chances of the disease
developing aboard ship and being brought TO this
port The federal government requires this pre-
caution and the companies are glad to enforce IT,
for Il would be a serious loss 70 them to have
outbreak of cholera at sea On account or It's
long period OF incubation 1t is difficult to guard
against smallpox thoroughly without wrecking the
commerce of the world There is more smallpox
in the United States than anywhere else. 1t Is
especially common in the Middle West, brought
there by ignorant immigrants who conceal the
disease. The simple method of vaccination is the
guard against II.
"There is no disease that cannot be successfully
treated with modern sanitary methods Cholera Is
the worst disease It's mortality is so per cent at
the beginning of the outbreak. Bubonic plague has
about -he mortality, but 1t is handled better
because get after the rats and heas. . 1t
spreads slowly a civilized country. In San Fran
cisco II took year for one hundred cases OF
plague to develop. Cholera comes with rush,
spreading through water and food. Russia is now
filed with It. There were 4.000 cases and 100
deaths reported between December and March last.
Probably the actual cases were twice many.
have four or five correspondents at Suez and other
points who cable OF cholera and other
epidemics, while large number of federal agents
who are medical officers send ME similar tnforma-
ton from Venezuela, China Russia and elsewhere.
I shift the white. yellow and black pins this
globe according the daily news, and tell at
a glance the worlds visible supply OF plague.
cholera and yellow fever.
"out of million and q half persons examined