The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1900. PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

Auckland Star, Issue 66, 19 March 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1900. PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

For tho cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the futuro in the distance, AM the cood that -we can do.

That the public should be imbued with a horror of the plague is natural. Loathsome in its character, deadly in its course, and appalling- in the agony with which it. racks Its victims, the disease is one that may well call forth Ad-

feelings of dread repugnance

liiitlhtg all this a- word of warning at

the present juncture is perhaps re> quired. Should by some ill-fortune, and not-withstanding the stringent re-

gulations enforced, the plague be introduced into this city, though aversion would doubtless thereby be in-

tensified, there would not be the remotest cause for panic. There haa

been adopted somewhat too alarm-

ist a tone, and as a consequence an ex-

aggerated fear has been conceived by

a section of the community which might easily be converted into the unreasoning frenzy of panic. Tho plague, did it spring up in our midst, would be so well under control ol sanitary measures that its victims would not probably exceed in number those who annually succumb to the autumn recurring typhoid visitation. Bubonic plague is a fever so closely allied to typhus in its most active form that the only distinguishable difference is the severe affection oi the lymphatic glands in the case of the former. The disease is endemic

in several Asiatic countries, among races almost without exception under nourished, if not destitute. At intervals a virulent epidemic, rapidly spreading- over vast areas, is experienced. In one such scourge, extending throughout Asia and 3-iii.ope, in the fourteenth century, it is computed that forty million people died. The condition of even the Caucasian of the lower classes was at that time little more sanitary than that of the natives ol Bomlbay in the native quarter of that city to-day. _ Of the latter it has been said that :s is "filthy beyond conception"-—a densely populated area, where festering filth endlessly accumulates. It is under such conditions that the bubonic plague flourishes. Had tho prejudices of caste and the religious superstitions and practices of the natives not operated as an effective barrier to the apt plication of thorough sanitary measures, the Bombay Presidency would, well within the four years that the scourge has held sway, have been entirely freed of the presence, of its dread visitant. As an example of the power that ilvuman intelligence directed to the close study of the plague has achieved in controlling its spread, if! not in curing it in the individual, take the ease of the recent outbreak at Honolulu. This town is cursed by a mixed Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian native quarter, in which modern sanitary precautions and appliances are conspicuous by their ab-

senee. The plague broke out and the authorities, by the heroic measure of burning' down a great portion orf the affected area, extirpated the disease, A fitful recurrence was speedily choked by the quarantining of every suspect, and tbe isolation and earefill treatment of those affected with the disease. To come to our -own ease. In Auckland we practically have no slums. The small spots in the heart of the city which might romp under the category are so restricted in area that the occupant* could with little inconvenience be

moved to better quarters. Sydney, on the other hand, is a city with not only the unenviable notoriety of slum districts, bur possessing a Chinese quarter also. And yet the authorities do not apprehend tbe disease obtaining any considerable hold. To begin with, tiie Hoard of Health isolated any person affected and all those associated with, him, but now the patient am. his immediate belongings only are removed to quarantine. The plague Ift not infectious, but directly contagious, and it is thought is not spread so much from man to man as from vats to man. This being the ease, tho

quarantine system, as practised at 'Motuihi, would appear to be at fault. Instead of the company and passengers of a vessel on arrival being cooped up on the steamer and no. allowed to land on the quarantine island, as is the ease, they should be immediately put ashore and accommodated there. The reason for this is that if the plague is existent on the ship, it is in all probability with the rats of the, vessel, and not among tho

passengers. The proper course would be, therefore, to land the passengers and thoroughly fumigate the ship with sulphur, at the same time, adopting measures to kill all the rats. Onoe the vessel and passengers' lug-o-ao-e were thoroughly fumigated

under the Australian regulations there would be no reason for the detention of either. Here, where more stringent precautions have been en^ forced, and the Australian precedent, has not- been adopted, it would be ft matter for consideration of the health authorities how long either or ■both should be detained. We cannot

too strongly deprecate the adoption I of an alarmist attitude. In the event of an outbreak in Auckland a general idea that the authorities would notfrom the outset have a strangling grip on the unwelcome visitor—as they undoubtedly would have—would do an immeasurable amount of harm. ■