October I. 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Rubber's Service in Quarantine. 



UNDER normal conditions 800,000 persons and $800,000,000 

 worth of goods enter this country through the port of 

 New York every year. Indeed, it is authoritatively stated 

 that 70 per cent, of all the immigrants admitted to the United 

 States annually do so by way of the metropolis. No wonder, 

 then, that Dr. Joseph J. O'Connell, the health officer of that 

 haven for foreigners, has declared that "The port of New 

 York is the sanitary frontier of the United States." There are 



28 other sea- 



RuBDER Covered C.\se for Testi: 

 Disinfectants. 



While the 

 ii>ual tide of 

 1 ni m i g r a- 

 tioii from Eu- 

 rope has been 

 greatly reduc- 

 ed because of 

 the \V o r 1 d 

 War, still the 



number of foreign ships coming to our ports has materially in- 

 creased, and because of this fact the quarantine of our seaboard 

 cities must not flag in its vigilance. The average person imagines 

 that it is the infected immigrant that is most to be feared. This is 

 not the case, because the sick are comparatively easy to detect 

 and so are those that are likely to develop some communicable 

 malady. Our greatest peril lies in those apparently healthy 

 people who, while immune themselves, are actually bearers o 

 menacing germs. These "carriers," but for the tireless watcbfu 

 ness of our quarantine officers, might all too easily get by into 

 our populous cities, and once there they miglit form a center 

 of infection that would soon involve scores and possibly hun- 

 dreds of our citizens. 



The story we have to tell is how these state and national 

 officials work and are ever on the alert to safeguard the public 

 health, and to describe the part in this vital service that ruliber 

 plays in many directions. Once more we shall see how thi-< 

 particular material meets the requirements with peculiar fitness, 

 and through its agency the barriers are made more effecti\c 

 against alien enemies of the microscopic sort. The diseases 

 likely to develop into epidemics are plague, typhus, smallpox, and 

 cholera. We know fully well the ravages wrought by 

 typhus in Servia since the beginning of hostilities in Europe 

 a year ago. 



Happily, it is definitely known now that the louse is the means 

 by which this destructive disease is transmitted from a sufferer 

 to a ready victim : and the health officer's problem, apart from 

 dealing with the malady when discovered, is to hunt for these 

 loathsome vermin upon incoming passengers and to place im- 

 mediately under suspicion any person or persons of this sort, 

 especially if they have been near anyone having typhus in any 

 of its stages. These seemingly healthy but suspected foreign 



arrivals are called "contacts," and arc sent to a detention station 

 for quarantine where they can be segregated and watched. In 

 the case of plague, science generally holds the rat responsible 

 for the spreading of this dire malady, and even though a ship 

 may come in with a clean bill of health, still she must be subjected 

 to thorough fumigation for the destruction of all rodents if the 

 craft has come from a port which has been visited by this disease 

 at any time during many months previous. This is particularl> 

 the case if the vessel has lain right alongside the dock at the 

 infected port, so that rats could come aboard. 



At present the disease most being feared of foreign origin is 

 cholera. The war between the Balkan nations and the Turkish 

 empire reintroduced cholera into Europe, and because of the 

 large fleet of ships reaching our shores now for supplies from 

 that continent it is all the more necessary that our precautions 

 be redoubled. However, even though the peril is increased by 

 the present great conflict, still Dr. O'Connell gives us this re- 

 assurance : "Rapid progress in the comparatively new science of 

 bacteriology has given to sanitarians the immeasurable advantage 

 of a precise knowledge of the causative agencies of cholera, 

 plague, and typhus fever, the three scourges of major importance 

 considered in connection with this war. Methods of isolation 

 and sanitation have been worked out with the result of greatly 

 augmenting the efficiency of public health officers." 



Now let us see how rubber figures in this battle in behalf of 

 the public health. We can best do this by describing some of the 

 routine work at one of our ports. Let us assume that the 

 ship to be' inspected has come from an infected port, or that 

 the foreign seaboard city is the outlet for a region in which 



Stongi.ng Off with 



Sou 



3N OF BiCHLOKll 



Ml 



one of these communicable diseases is prevalent. For the sake 

 of example let us choose typhus fever. The inspectors board the 

 craft at quarantine. Each is armed with a clinical thermometer 

 held in a hard rubber case. The gangways are guarded so that 

 everyone on board must march before these officers, the number 

 must tally with the ship's list, and no chance is given anyone 

 to "repeat" so that a sick man can be impersonated by a well 

 one while lie lies bidden. In making this inspection, the quaran- 



