THE HURRICANE SEASON. 165 



yaws increased considerably. The rugged conforma- 

 tion of the country of Dominica, the smallness of the 

 population as compared with the area, the facilities 

 for ' squatting,' and the absence, until recently, of a 

 medical service, all tended to favor the spread of the 

 disease. About eight years ago the number of cases 

 had increased to such an alarming extent that meas- 

 ures were taken for the repression of the disease. 

 Hospitals were established, yaws patients were ad- 

 mitted and cured, and it was hoped that the disease 

 would be extinguished ; but the system adopted was 

 stopped too soon, and the malady reappeared and 

 spread with great rapidity. The government, in a 

 few years, had to grapple with a contagious disease, 

 which was present in every district of the country, and 

 which held hundreds of victims in its grasp. 



" Fortunately the disease is one amenable to medical 

 treatment, and the yaws hospitals, now in full work- 

 ing order, are fast removing the blot which has ex- 

 isted upon the public health for so many years. That 

 the disease will be finally eliminated from Dominica 

 is disbelieved in by many, but I see no reason why 

 this desirable event should not really occur. In 

 former days the disease existed in all the islands of 

 the West Indies, but now it is confined to few." 



Empowered by the government to gather in and 

 isolate all persons found afflicted with the yaws, un- 

 dismayed by opposition from the ignorant or by the 

 accumulation of filth in these Augean stables, this 

 young enthusiast went to work with a zeal and intelli- 

 gence that presaged success, to eradicate the disease. 

 Under his direction the police of the island scoured 

 the neighborhood of the villages, and brought into 



