SMALL-POX IN WELLINGTON.

Evening Star, Issue 2833, 18 March 1872, Page 3

SMALL-POX IN WELLINGTON.

The history of the outbreak of small-pox among the passengers by the ship England, is succintly given by the Lyttelton Times. On the vessel’s anival at Wellington, the form of sickness was stated to be aggravated measles, with complications, and the alarm soon spread when the vessel rounded the point with the yellow flag flying at the mainmast head. Officials were hastily got together, and in a very short time the harbor master, who is also health officer of the port, accompanied by a doctor, the Mayor, the Provincial Secretary, and the Collector of Customs, put off to the ship. On arriving within “ a respectful distance, ” they held a parley with the captain. The ship’s doctor, it appears, was himself ill, or was stated to be so, and it was therefore found impossible to get a medical report. From the captain it was ascertained that measles in a very aggravated form had been prevalent among the passengers; that three adults and thirteen children had died during the voyage—the last death being that of an adult, who was buried at sea four days before the arrival of the ship—and that the remainder of the passengers were in good health, with the exception of au infant which had been sickly since its birth. Evidently the captain wished to make the best he could of the matter; and though in this he was seriously to blame, his conduct is not altogether inexcusable. Presumedly, he was reporting from information given by the medical officer of the ship, and it cannot therefore be fairly said that he was deliberately trying to deceive the health officer. Under the circumstances, it was considered advisable to order the vessel to the quarantine ground. A meeting of the Board of Health was held immediately afterwards, and the decision arrived at was, that all the passengers should be landed on Soames Island, so as to secure perfect isolation until the exact nature of the disease was ascertained. On the Health Officer’s second visit to the ship, the captain still adhered to the statement made by him on the previous day, but Dr Johnstone insisted on a written report from the medical officer of the ship, who seems to have been suspiciously reluctant from the very first to present himself. At last he “came to the rail and handed to those in the boat a detailed statement of the symptoms.” Dr Johnstone came to the conclusion that the disease was small-pox, and the boat beat a hasty retreat to Soames Island, where a consultation was held. It was decided to place the ship strictly under the quarantine regulations, and subsequently it was agreed—and we wonder the step did not suggest itself at the outset to send a medical man on board the England. The Board then made arrangements for lauding the passengers, and preventing any communication between them and the shore people—so that, with the exce tion of the omission above mentioned, the authorities appear to have acted promptly and judiciously. On Monday morning another visit was paid to the ship in order to receive the report of the doctor, who had gone off the previous evening. Another death had occurred in the meantime, and Dr Buhner, without stating the number, reported that “ the cases were very serious. ” He also said that he was afraid there had been “gross negligence” somewhere, intimating that the captain and passengers would give a full explanation, The arrangements to be made for the immigrants arc thus stated in the Independent : —A building will be placed at each end of Soames Island, so that the healthy passengers may be separated from those having evidence of disease upon them. As the latter become convalescent, they will be drafted to the building at the other end of the island. A plentiful supply of fresh water will be provided, four iron tanks having been forwarded to the island, to be filled before the passengers laud. On the small island to the north of Soames Island a shed will be erected for the reception of the provisions. To secure perfect isolation the boatmen will land their cargoes here, to be removed by the people on the island after they have left. No communication, however, is to be held with the doctor or anybody else belonging to the ship within a distance of fifty yards. The ship’s doctor has been placed under arrest, “ on a charge of cruelty,” and the Independent states that complaints have been made throughout the voyage about his fitness, the first having been lodged a week after the vessel left Gravesend. Our contemporary has also heard that the Scandinavian immigrants were very badly treated on the passage from their own country to London : “ We are told that they were huddled together on the deck of a steamer more like sheep than human he ngs, and that great suffering ensued.” This, it is added, may be an exaggeration of the usual discomforts of a sea voyage, but the Indejmulent goes on to write a lot of sensational trash about the treatment of German emigrants to America, which is quite uncalled for and may possibly do harm.' The Government will no doubt make a stiict and searching investigation into the whole affair, and till the report appears remarks of this nature arc to be deprecated, la the meantime, it is satisfactory

to note that the measures adopted by the authorities to secure the isolation of the disease have every appearance of being as complete as they are humane.