The Feilding Star. TUESDAY AUGUST 12, 1884. The Small-Pox

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 25, 12 August 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY AUGUST 12, 1884. The Small-Pox

Now that our worst fears have been realised, and the sniall-pox has been brought to the Colony, it will be much the best plan to meet the evil with a bold front. We are glad to notico that in Napier and Invercargill, where the only reported cases have yet appeared, the authorities have proved j themselves to be equal to the emergency. It is also a fortunate thing that the late Government so far recognised their own culpable negligence and incapacity as to delegate unlimited powers to the several mayors of the infected -towns. Every possible precaution has been taken to isolate tho patients in order to check the spread of the epidemic. Whether this will be practicable remains to be seen. There are precautions, however, which should be taken by every member of this community who is at all afraid of the infection himself, or for the members of his family. The public vaccinator should be visited at once and the necessary operation undergone. Too much attention cannot be given to personal cleanliness, while all back premises should be kept scrupulously clean. Drainage and sewage should be seen to by the Borough Engineer, assisted by the Inspector of Nuisances. Under any circumstances this should be done at once as the hot weather is coming on when malaria is generated from all stagnant pools or heaps of refuse. The most important of all is to avoid all needless alarm. At Home, where the small-pox obtains in the large cities nearly all the year round, very little, if any, fear is experienced, as advanced medical science has now reduced the number of fatal cases to a minimum below that of ordinary fevers. And the mortality is only to be feared in the cases of young children or persons of remarkably delicate constitutions.