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Evening Star, Issue 3433, 21 February 1874, Page 2

“ The proof of the pudding is iu the easing.” We owe a very great deal to the Board of Health. For two or three years past no serious infectious disease has gained a footing'in the Province, with the exception of the whooping cough, which, depending as it does so much on atmospheric influences, is an extremely importunate visitor, and is

hardly to be kept out whatever precautions may be taken. Over and over again we have had measles and scarlatina at our very doors, but they have never got over the threshold, or only just over, and have then been almost immediately expelled. It is too early yet to judge whether the exertions of the Board of Health in the case of the Mongol will answer the purpose or not, but past success gives good ground of hope for the future. We should like to know, however, why the resolution of the Board, that the cargo of the Mongol should be fumigated, was rescinded. The Board has, rightly, almost despotic powers, and would hardly yield to any external pressure. Why did they change their minds ? It is really gratifying to think that many hundred useful lives have been saved by the stringent precautions of the Quarantine. Not so many years ago all those pest laden ships which have come to our shores would have discharged their cargo of death, disease, and misery in our very midst. People would have thought that they were suffering from the wrath of the Deity, and that there was no help for them. Now we know that “ God helps those who help themselves.”