The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-12-15
FIRST WORK IS
NEAR THE HOME
Governor Carter Points Out Com
mon Sense Method Of the
Sanitary Campaign.
lrrom wsane.day,a AdvarlIaer.l

(FrOm Wednesdays Advoriiaori)
Ex-Governor George r. Carter gave
an interesting discussion Of sanitation
matters and some vigorous comments
on the criticisms Of the antimosquito
campaign, in response to an inquiry
regarding the work Of the Sanitation
Commission, OF which he is the chair
man. He snid that the commissioners
1 were hard at work and hoping to have
their report ready by the FIRST of the
year. It win then be up TO Governor
! Frear to consider whether an extra
session of the legislature shall be
called, to provide means for carrying
on the work.
alt has been my experience in the
study and examination Of sanitation
and antimosquito campaigns, said the
former Governor, "that the place to
begin is near the homes. Destroy the
mosquito breeding places nearest to
the homes first, and then work out, is
the rule ] have always understood to
be the one carried out. Some people
here say that the first attention should
have been given to the swamps, but l
never heard Of such policy where
there were breeding places nearer
households.
Go After Ali Mosquitoes.
saIt is all one campaign, and the
manner of starting it is merely a mat
ter of method. TO my mind the culex,
our ordinary night mosquito, is about
as bad as any of them. It carries
elephantiasis, disease very prevalent
in Samoa and various South Sea
Islands. This terrible disease has no
hold here, but at any time our mos.
quitoes might get it. To many, this
disease is worse than yellow fever.
"We have none Of the anophele, the
mosquito which carries malaria. But
we have malaria in the blood of the
) Indians here, and it is only necessary
for a mosquito or two of the right kind
to come here, and lay eggs, and then
we shall have spreading malaria, which
would be very costly disease here.
The Banana Cutting.
"To me the cutting of banana plants
, is simply matter of method. an
for getting rid of the mosquitoes, an'
} banana cutting is mere detail of th'
I campaign against them. If the com
mittee had begun with something else
, l should have been satisfied, just as
, am now. Results are what is wanted
. "Some results have already beel
! shown. There are less mosquitoes nov
than when the work began. This i
i. noticeable, 1 believe, in many places
8 There will always be some people +
complain. There will always be SON
Il ffere are some who say we had M
plague.
Sam Francisco's Lesson.
"San Francisco has furnished al
example of the results of obstruction
of health work. In 1900 she hat
plague, but her citizens would not ad
init it. Led by the press, they finally
worked up such sentiment against thu
federal physician who had reported tn,
plague that he was withdrawn from the
service there, for the federal doctor,
, will not do special work in commun
ity unless supported by the community
Doctor Currie would not have take1
hold here if he had not been asked tC
a by large gathering of leading citizens
: and even then he probably had to gel
/, permission from Washington.
''With the cessation of the fedora
ditions became worse. Soon the citi
zens were appealing to Washington fol
help. They got it, and the fedora
service took the matter up again. They
I soon suppressed the disease, but it wai
too late. 1t had become thoroughly es
tablished, and squirrels had caught the
disease. Today the California ground
squirrel is infected with buboniC
plague Not so very long ago child
of prominent Los Angeles Official
picked up sick squirrel, took the
plague from it and died.
obeying the Doctor.
"The local proposition is in some
respects similar. The community
asked for the advice and aid of the
federal doctors here, and the special
committee appointed to undertake the
work has followed their advice. 1t is
a simple proposition of consulting q
: physician and then taking his medi
, cine.
Governor Carter has a number OF
: maps, showing swamps, drainage, etc.
ready. They will be submitted with
the report. fThere leems to be an
impression that this commission is tc
go ahead and do lot of things he
said. But the legislative act under
7 which we are working gave us an ap
. preparation of only $500, so of course
we are not expected to do even muet
map making What shall be done wher
! our report is complete, is a matter tC
be taken up them