The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25 1875

Evening Star, Issue 3979, 25 November 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25 1875

We may bo fortunate enough to escape being visited by the scourge which is now desolating some of the principal towns of Australia and Tasmania, but it would be extremely unwise to reckon on any such escape. Far better would it be for us to make up our minds that the scarlet fever will get a fooling in Dunedin, and to prepare to meet it as best we may. This Colony has often escaped under seemingly unfavorable ciicumstauces, but that is no reason why it should do so again. It should be remembered that there is a great difference between warding off the danger when it lias been brought near us by a fever ship from Home, and

dealing with it when the disease is epidemic in a city with which we are in constant communication, and which is only a few days’ sail from ns. In the former case the disease is localised. We know that the danger is imminent: more so, indeed, than it is in the present instance. But we know exactly where it lies, and we know, too, that if the ship and those on board of it can be subjected to disinfecting processes, the disease may be stain ped out. Over and over again have the New Zealand Boards of Health fought with scarlet fever, and over and over again have they been victorious. It is a very different matter, however, to have to deal with the disease when there can be no exact knowledge as to where the danger is. It is true that it might be averted if the mode of dealing with Home shins were adopted in the ease; of intercolonial vessels, but public opinion would certainly uot sanction the carrying out of such an extreme measure as this. It would, wo fear, he impossible to subject every steamer from Melbourne to a strict

quarantine, and if the attempt were made, there would be very soon no Melbourne steamers to quarantine. All that the Health Officers cau do in this direction is to see that no actual case of the disease is brought into tlie Colony—against infection brought by convalescents in articles of clothing, &c., they are quite poweiless. It is therefore, unfortunately, only too plain that our present chance of escaping scot-free is very small. It seems paradoxical, but scarlet fever in Melbourne is far more to be dreaded by the people of Dunedin than is scarlet fever in our own harbor.

It is too Lite now to think of putting our City into; a satisfactory sanitary condition. That is a thing that cannot be done in a few days or weeks. C( nera! measures would be of little avail, because they could not be perfectly carried out. It is certain that i muedin would have far less cause to fear that an epi lemic of the fever would prove to be of the malignant kind if the City were thoroughly dmined, if the cesspool system were abolished, tf the .slaughter-houses and the heaps of abominations scattered here and there in the suburbs wem dime away with. Experience has shown that, as a rule, not without occasional apparent exceptions, any given disease will prove more destructive amongst a population exposed to the iulluences of vitiated air, bad smells, Ac., than it will amongst people surrounded by circumstances favorable to the maintenance of a high standard ol general health. One instance proves nothing ; still it is a suggestive tact that while in Melbourne, with its crowded lanes and valleys, and its noxious smells, the disease is proving extremely fatal, in Wiliiamstown, a few miles away from the capital, a much milder type of the disease

prevails. But, as we have said, it is useless to think of putting our City into a proper sanitary condition in view of this particular epidemic. Still we may at all ■■vents prepare, to deal with cases in letail. We have been given to understand that medical men are prel t y well agreed that every child suffering from the disease is a centre of infection ; that it is essential that even ■ise should be isolated as soon as it ■ectirs ; that when the case has terminated, a lengthened ipiaiautine should be undergone by the convalescent, if

happily the state of convalescence have been reached; finally that it is of the greatest importance that every article that has been in contact with or near the person of the patient should be thoroughly disinfected ; bedding, sheets, blankets, <fee., should be baked, or still better, burnt. We would urge upon the proper authorities the necessity for their being quite prepared when the time comes, should it unfortunately come at all, to go as far as the Public Health Act will permit them in carrying out, without the smallest delay, these or similar precautionary and remedial measures.

Since this article was written, we regret to learn that our fears have been realised. The letter from Dr Gillies, in our columns, shows only too plainly that scarlet fever is in our midst.