THE SMALL-POX AT MELBOURNE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 646, 11 January 1869, Page 4

THE SMALL-POX AT MELBOURNE.

(From the Age.)

The great man-eater has presented himself among us with unmistakable credentials, but terrible form. Death in the shape of small-pox has visited our city. Already has that dire scourge swept away two lives, and who can say whether the work of destruction is complete? Who will be the third ? is a fearful question. Still it must be asked, because when pressed upon the attention its consideration is calculated to lead to the most salutary consequences. How has this dreaded enemy of life got amongst us ? In a manner which shows that the most stringent regulations are necessary to prevent vessels, on which during the passage such infectious diseases may have broken out, from getting into harbor until our Health Officers pronounce them to be safe. The regulations on this subject, as set forth in that portion of the Pub lie Health Act which relates to vessels and quarantine, may be said to be stringent enough. They certainly are stringent, but arc they stringently carried out? The 920 d clause of the Act directs that every master of a vessel shall give a full and correct written report of the sanitary condition of the town from which he sailed, and the health on board his vessel during the whole voyage. For a rion compli ance with this and other rules the master renders himself liable to a heavy penalty. Again, the fourth question which the Health Officer is instructed to ask him is a very searching one: — " Has any case of small-pox, or any form of eruptive skin disease, fever, scarlatina, plague, cholera, or other infectious or contagious disease, or has any other case of any other kind of sickness or disease occurred on board during the voyage ?" Now all of these regulations are very stringent and very excellent, but the question must be repeated —Are they at all times faithfully and stringently carried out ? We fear not.

On the 22nd ult. the Avonvale arrived in Hobson'a Bay from Foo Chow Foo and on board she had small-pox of a most virulent kind. Two days only elapsed until her chief officer was laid down by the disease, never to rise again. There was no difficulty in discovering that he was infected with small-pox. Since his death it has become known that during the short pas sage from Foo Chow Foo two men had died on board the Avonvale. Of what did these men die ? People will naturally ask this question as if there was but one answer to it, namely, that they died of small-pox. We cannot give this answer ourselves, nor can we contradict it. But the master of the Avonvale, in giving to the Health Officer at Queenscliff the report and answers required as to the sanitary condition of his* vessel, muat have either told it all or else he did not tell as fully and correctly as he was bound to do. If he faithfully complied with the regulations, surely the Health Officer &t Queenscliff should have known from the information thus supplied to him whether the. deaths resulted from the gmall-pox. On the other hand,- if the captain kept back information which,

should have been given, lie must be called to account. We very much fear that there is something wrong somewhere. Have the regulations been faithfully and stringently carried out ? Dereliction, if it exists, must be punished; for it has suspended by a hair over this Colony—perhaps the whole of Australia—-a poisoned and deadly sword. !

At present, we rejoice to know that no person has been iufected since the death of the second unhappy victim. The most praiseworthy precautions have been adopted to prevent the further spread of the disease. We have great reason to be thankful that the deceased chief officer of the Avonvale was, from the commencement of his malady, lodged in the hospital. There every facility was at hand to keep down and cut off the contagion. But no one can tell how lamentable might have been the consequences if he had been lodged anywhere else—in an hotel or in a private family. But even if the deadly diseaso has now been successfully stopped, if the Avonvale's poison is exhausted, if no other victim shall fall, still this and other diseases are liable to be introduced and spread throughout Melbourne and the Colony at any hour. We therefore must not rest in a sense of security until wo have done all in our power not only to prevent such possible disasters, but to mitigate the mischief they are likely to produce should they arrive. It is well known to the medical profession that if a resident of Melbourne be struck down by a zymotic disease, he has less chance of escaping with his life than the resident of a well-drained city has when similarly attacked. Small-pox is a manageable disease compared with some of the other'distempers whose advent may be looked for. Vaccina tion is a defence, although not always an effectual one, against the small-pox, but there is no similar mode of seeking immunity from the cholera and allied epidemics. The only way in which they can be kept off, or disarmed when they come, is by scrupulous attention t> the sanitary precautions so weli understood and yet so little attended to in the present day. Some of these are >vithin the reach of every individual, but there are others whicli must be un Jertaken by the local or General Government, Of these, drainage is all important. It is lamentable to see, week after week, the City Council frit tering away its time and strength on trifling matters, while this great question of life or death is passed over in silence. If the Council think the General Government should take the task in hand, let the pressure be brought to bear. If the Government maintain that the work should be done by the Corporation, and the Corporation should refuse, the only remedy is the appointment of a commission, with power to undertake the work, and levy rates for its completion and maintenance. The responsibility cannot much longer be tossed battledore and shuttlecock fashion from the Corporation to the Crown, and from the Crown to the Corporation. If neither one nor the other will move in the matter, the members for the city should interfere, and if they remain mute, the citizens must make their choice whether they will take determined action or suffer their ranks to be decimated.