The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2529, 25 March 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1871.

We believe that the Provincial Council is to be summoned as soon as possible after the elections arc fairly over, so that -we may suppose that about this time next month it will be in session. One of the subjects to which members’ attention will require to be called is the scarlet fever. Something ought to be done in this matter, and every one knows that something ought to be done ] but at the same time no one seems to have any power whatever to deal with it. When once a disease has been introduced into the Province, there is no machinery at present in existence for preventing its ravages from extending far and wide. As one of our correspondents pointed out the other day, while an infections disease among cattle is guarded against with the greatest care, and even if introduced into the Province is immediately stamped out, special officers having been appointed for the purpose, it seems to be no one’s business to take precautions to save the lives of mere human beings. It is possible tliat this anomalous state of things may to some extent be caused by the superstitions feelings in which mankind—even highly civilised mankind—are so prone to indulge. If a man's cow dies of pleuropneumonia, -he is quite willing to believe that if he had taken due precautions, and kept his cow out of the way of infection, it would not have caught the disease ; but when a child dies of an infectious disease, which in not a few instances is the result of want of cleanliness or proper care, these circumstances are considered to be altogether inadequate to produce the fatal result, and we are ready—somewhat blasphemously, it appears to us—to call that the “ will of Heaven ” which ought rather to be considered as the result of our neglect of the laws of health, which imperatively demand our obedience in the same way as the moral laws given by the Creator. It appears that we have a number of persons, collectively denominated the Board of Health, whose duty it is to ascertain the state of health of all the passengers of ships coming to Otago, and in the event of there being any infectious disease on board of these ships, to prevent such disease from being communicated to persons on shore. It is very manifest that, from some cause or another, this duty is not satisfactorily performed by the present Board of Health. There is clear evidence to prove that, beyond the placing the Kobert Henderson for a short time in quarantine, the most obvious precautions were not taken. We do not mean to say that the scarlet fever would certainly not have gained a footing in Otago if all the appliances of modern science had been used ; but we do say that no sufficient attempt was made to benefit by those appliances. We would therefore urge on the Government tho necessity of their introducing into the Council, as soon as possible after its meeting, some strong measure having for its object the checking of the spread of such diseases. Such a measure, it would seem, should have two main intentions : one to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases into the Province, and the other to provide for the immediate skimping out of such diseases when unfortunately they had been in traduced. The first of these objects

might be attained by making provision : for the appointment of a thoroughly efficient and responsible Board of Health, composed partly of medical men, and partly of business men of humanity and sound common sense, and if possible fathers of families. The second want might be met by providing a sanatorium some distance from the town ; by making it compulsory on all heads of families and medical men, under penalty of a heavy fine, to immediately report any case of infectious disease that might come under their notice ; and by giving the proper authorities the power immediately to remove all such cases to the sanatorium, and to keep the patients there till they were perfectly healthy.