Year: 1870

THE BOARD OF HEALTH AND THE FEVER


Yellow fever never takes kindly to our eli
mate, and it is 4S years since it has appeared
in New-YOrk in a seriously epidemic form.
We have no reason therefore to apprehend
pestilence, especially at this late period of the
season, but it is useless to deny that the dis
ease has assumed grave form on Governors
Island has probably seized few victims In
the city itself; and thus far has not been
checked. 1t has prevailed on Governors Island
for about seven weeks, during which period
about 100 persons seem to have been attacked,
and about 25 have died. All this while, until
the end of last week, intercourse between the
island and the city has been unObstructed. The
contagion has been carried from the barracks
to the tenements of our lower wards; we have
no means of knowing that tho disease is not
now latent among the crowded inhabitants Of
the poorer streets, nor indeed can we feel any
confidence that the deaths have not considera-
bly, exceeded the number reported.


survey of the facts thus far brought to
light suggests some very unpleasant reflections
not that the danger is at all serious but
that if it had been the Board of Health would
have given us little or no protection. The
fever had lasted six weeks before the Board
became aware of it, and the officers are APP
parently now unable TO conjecture how many
cases may have slipped through their fingers
and planted the seeds of plague in the fever
nests Of the tenement districts. Worse than
this, the Board of Health does not recognize
yellow fever when fatal cases are actually
brought to its notice; the Sanitary Superin-
tendent after investigation, prOnOunces that
the disease, whatever it may be, un-
questiOnably is not yellow fever and is
not contagious; and while physicians are
disputing, the ordinary measures of pre-
caution are neglected, and there is daily
communication between the infected region
and those quarters of the city which, being
crowded and dirty, are especially liable to
suffer from any contagious disorder. Ii was
on OF about the 18th of September Zone month
after the outbreak of the disease on the island)
that the Board first received notice of case
in the city. 1t was not until the Goth that
they discovered that the Sanitary Superintend-
ent was mistaken in his report, and placed
the island under quarantine


The Board have since aggravated their
original error by trying to keep the affair
secret, meeting with closed doors, and leaving
the people prey to all kinds Of wild fears
and exaggerated rumOrs 1t is almost always
best in such cases to tell the plain truth, and
it was certainly the duty of the Board
to be frank in such case as this,
where there is danger in ignorance.
What possible harm could ensue, even
if the people did get frightened, it is not
easy to see but it is easy enough to under
stand the danger of letting people expose
themselves daily and hourly to infection, even
though the Sanitary Superintendent, in oppo-
sition to other experienced physicians, per-
sisted in his belief that the endemic, what
" ever might be its special nomenclature, was
"not yellow fever or disease of a contagious
character" Let us have no more mysterious
conclaves if the fever has been checked, we
ought to know it if there is any peril, let us
face IL