The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 929, 8 April 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1879.

tm conatubte, Edmund Cuthbert, whom' death was announced in our issue nf yesterday, arid who was buried to-day,. was stationed at Waimate i and, having been sewed with, what appeared to be typhoid fever, he was removed to the Onmaro Hospital for treatment, tt seems Strang© that fever patients should he sent from Waimate to Oamaru. There is an hospital there,- which has. or should have. accommodation for' such patients. When dangerou* fevers are raging in communities, every effort b made to prevent them from spreading in those communities, and the motive that leads- to- these precautions being taken to obvbte- local; contagion should lead to the protection of the health and lives of others outside of those communities. It b strange that it shuttle! be necessary to send fever patients from Waimate to Oi*marw. We were ttnder the impression that Wairuafe hud an hospital of its own capable of atforditig accommodation to such patients ; and. if it has not, there would surety- fie no difficulty in arranging a temporary fever want, lit b a most unusual thing to< despatch fever patients by rail from one place to another,, and,, moreover, it is neither fair to the patients nor those amongst whom they are sent. If it were necessary that we should be a sanitorium for those from other part* suffering from infectious diseases., it would be our duty to. accept the inevitable, and do the best we could to protect ourselves against infection. Put it is not necessary, so- far as we know, and it b inconsiderate that we should be called upon to. bear the burthen el a most dangerous malady that may have been created by the faulty : sanitary arrangements of another town, or from whatever cause they may have arisen. But, writing, of sanitary arrangements reminds «s that money spent in taking such precautionary measures to preserve the public health would be wasted if, after having been careful toavoid the creation <pf fever in our own midst, transference: of fever germs from other places were permitted Oar object in referring to* thb matter b to- induce peopte to be careful what they do in such times as these. To be forewarned b to be forearmed : and we would tell our readers-, on the authority of the moat able physician* of the day, that typhoid, enteric, or gastric fever—different names for the same dbease—may fee produced by inhaling particles of potsenotts matter that adhere U> the clothesi or person of those ! attacked, and are to© easily transferred to others. Seeing that the disease b of so ; serious a nature, it is the duty of evcry j community to- At it*- »^ st *«" keep it within the bounds of their own territory. But poor Ctrtttsrarr b ' not the only fever patient that has visited us from Waimate. Yesterday we were : informed that two. or three persons suffering: from the malady had come by rail, jand www seeking admbsion info our i hospital. We weaker whether the railway 'guard and passengers were made aware of the fact that they were being brought ! inter contact with peopte suffering from so' dangwoaa and contagions » dbease. ! Wff saw one poor fellow dragging his way tediously and pain-folly down the street, having just paid a visit to one of our citbens, with the object of obtaining admbsion into the hospital- Of coarse, it was not the sufferers fault that he iendangarsd the health and even lives of those with when* he travelled, of the citiaea* upon whom h* called, of those whom he met in the streets, and, sn fact. of the whole town. Even if he were jnwart* of the exact nature of the disease from whieh he b suffering, he could not be blamed. Thorn ami some ««»whose only J hoB» whon tfeey ace oOktod with sickness lean be an hospital. There an hundred?

of «och in and near Waimate; and if they cannot obtain admission into the hospital there, they roust seek further afield. There is something wrong with the Waimate Hospital arrangements, if it was necessary that those fever patients that arrived here by rail yesterday should seek admission into oar hospital, and we have every reason to believe that it was necessary, or Constable Cr~tbert would not have been sent here. It behoves the people of Waimate to make arrangements to provide accommodation in their own hospital, at least for fever patients. From what we can learn, the administration of the affairs of the Waimate Hospital has not been so wise as could be desired, or as sach an important institution demands.