470 



HEALTH, NATIONAL BOARD OF. 



V. The means by which the sanitary condition 

 of Havana, Matanzas, and other Cuban ports 

 can be best made satisfactory. Cuba does not 

 lack scientific engineers, who see what is re- 

 quired for its sanitation. Here, as elsewhere, 

 two factors are needed for the elimination of 

 disease, hygienic education for the people and 

 financial power in the Government. There are 

 persons who pronounce yellow fever a nautical 

 disease. The weight of evidence collected by 

 this Commission goes to prove that the more 

 communication between the crew and the town, 

 and the closer the vessel lies to the shore, the 

 more liable it is to become infected. While 

 ships are known to carry this poison from port 

 to port, in the opinion of this Commission they 

 receive it from the land and not from the har- 

 bor. There is no proof of its spontaneous ori- 

 gin on ships. 



VI. What can and should be done to prevent 

 the introduction of the cause of yellow fever 

 into the shipping in Cuban ports ? The 1 United 

 States can protect itself by prohibiting entrance 

 into its ports of vessels from infected ports. 

 The eradication of the evil in Cuba depends 

 solely upon the Spanish authorities. The fol- 

 lowing preventive measures are recommend- 

 ed : Clean, dry, and less porous ballast should 

 be procured, and this should be thoroughly 

 disinfected in the ship. Vessels should lie as 

 far as possible from shore and other vessels, 

 and well to windward of infected localities or 

 ships. On leaving port every part of the ship 

 should be cleansed, fumigated, and ventilated. 

 The order to the Spanish navy requires strict 

 precautions at all seasons. This is equally in- 

 cumbent whether there are or are not fever 

 cases on board, as the virus is known to lie 

 long dormant. The need for stringent sanitary 

 measures is self-evident; the execution of them 

 is difficult. Eight methods must be enforced 

 by right men. In the act of June 2d Congress 

 essays to regulate this important affair. An 

 older law requires captains to pay three 

 months' extra wages to sick seamen discharged 

 in a foreign port. To avoid this mulct, masters 

 of small vessels often prefer to sail with their 

 fever-smitten sailors. This should be amended. 

 Legal enactments should secure the prompt 

 report to the United States Consul of suspicious 

 qases on shipboard, and the non-intercourse of 

 persons on board with the shore. 



The quarantine act of June 2d was denounced 

 by the Cuban press. Permission to promul- 

 gate it was not granted by the authorities. In- 

 spectors were appointed under the act, but the 

 Spanish Government refused to allow other bills 

 of health to be issued than those given by their 

 own officials. The loose construction under 

 which they give clean bills of health has been 

 shown. During this imbroglio vessels left 

 Cuba and were admitted into the United States, 

 not being provided with the required certifi- 

 cate, and in contravention of the act for pre- 

 venting the importation of disease. This part 

 of that law is thus in abeyance, and the public 



health imperiled, until these important points 

 are decided. The consent and aid of Spain in 

 the enforcement of the statute should be sought. 

 An international sanitary code, modeled on the 

 French code of 1853 and providing uniform 

 regulations, is a great desideratum. 



VII. Examination of the blood in yellow fe- 

 ver. Micro-photographs were taken with pow- 

 erful instruments. The only peculiarity ob- 

 served is certain granules in the white corpus- 

 cles. These may or may not be symptomatic 

 of this disease, or causative of it. The Com- 

 mission were able to deduce no new facts from 

 their examinations. They hold that these pho- 

 tographs reveal all that there is in the blood. 

 No organism is shown in any preparation pho- 

 tographed immediately after collection. No 

 chemical examination was attempted. 



VIII. Experiments upon animals. Animals 

 of various species imported from the United 

 States were exposed to infection in the holds 

 of vessels ; they were fed upon the excretions 

 of yellow-fever patients ; the blood of such 

 patients, in different stages of the disease, was 

 injected into their veins; they were made to 

 sleep in infected bedding and clothing. In- 

 genuity exhausted modes of injection. In no 

 instance was yellow fever developed in an ani- 

 mal. One suspicious case turned out to be a 

 well-known fever, called romadiza, common in 

 dogs imported into Cuba. 



IX. Culture experiments. In verification of 

 the hypothesis that the essential cause of yel- 

 low fever is a living germ or organism, capable 

 under certain circumstances of indefinite multi- 

 plication, the Commission made experiments in 

 germ-culture. A certain fungus was developed, 

 but whether distinctive of yellow fever only 

 no one on the Commission, unluckily, had suf- 

 ficiently precise knowledge of the lower forms 

 of vegetable life to determine. Careful micro- 

 photographs were obtained, which should be 

 submitted to expert mycologists. The aqua 

 coco (cocoanut-milk) from the unripe nut, being 

 transparent and inclosed in a germ-proof recep- 

 tacle, was found a convenient fluid for detecting 

 bacteria. Exposed to infected air, it soon de- 

 veloped a pellicle containing cells of a fungus, 

 and turned milky white. Portions of the same 

 fluid, protected by a bell-glass, retained their 

 purity and transparency. 



X. Examination of the water of the harbor. 

 The harbor- water has the same specific gravity 

 as that of the gulf outside. After heavy rains 

 its gravity falls, especially in the vicinity of sew- 

 ers. Kept in an open vessel, it developed no 

 putridity recognizable by the senses. That 

 taken near the sewer-mouths contained infuso- 

 ria, but they showed no activity, being proba- 

 bly fresh-water species destroyed by salt water. 



XI. Examination of the air. Microscopic 

 examinations of air from hospital wards, and 

 other infected localities, revealed certain slen- 

 der, glistening, acicular crystals in great abun- 

 dance, unknown to the Commissioners, and un- 

 described in the standard works on the subject. 



