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SANITARY CONFERENCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



The second day's session of the conference was 

 devoted largely during the morning session to 

 hearing reports. A report by Dr. Juan Guiteras, 

 of the sanitary department of Havana, Cuba, 

 described the methods employed in Cuba for pre- 

 venting the spread of yellow fever. He said 

 there had not been a case of yellow fever in Cuba 

 that had originated there in four months, an 

 unprecedented record. He declared his implicit 

 belief that yellow fever is spread through the 

 agency of the mosquito, and that the most neces- 

 sary precaution to prevent contagion was to 

 keep the afflicted patient away from the insect. 

 He said that several cases of yellow fever had 

 been imported from Mexican ports and treated in 

 Cuba recently. The patients were put under mos- 

 quito-netting from the time of landing until they 

 were well. Although other patients, non-immune, 

 were exposed, being put but a few feet away 

 in the hospital, there was no spreading of the 

 disease. 



Dr. Charles J. Finlay, chief sanitary officer of 

 Cuba, described the system of organization for 

 sanitary work in Cuba; and Dr. Eduardo Moore, 

 of Chile, told of sanitary methods in his coun- 

 try, and extended an invitation to the conference 

 to hold its next meeting in Chile. Dr. Ulloa 

 spoke of conditions in Costa Rica, which, he said, 

 was quite free from contagious diseases. He de- 

 clared that the restriction placed upon products 

 from Costa Rica by the port of New Orleans 

 were .unjust, as the imports were not a menace 

 to the health of the citizens of that port. The 

 plan of organization of the sanitary office of 

 Mexico and the methods used there were dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, president of the 

 Superior Board of Health of Mexico, and he also 

 invited the conference to hold its next meeting 

 at the city of Mexico. 



Dr. Wyman told of sanitary conditions in the 

 United States, and said that, by the provisions 

 of the act of Congress at its last session, pro- 

 viding for changing the Marine-Hospital Service 

 into a board of health, thus adding to its func- 

 tions, the national board of health was brought 

 into closer relations with the State boards. He 

 mentioned that the Government keeps sanitary 

 officers in foreign ports, and spoke of the bene- 

 fits accruing from the plan. 



Dr. Rosenau, of the United States, gave a 

 brief rfsuniti of prevailing diseases in this coun- 

 try in recent years, and in speaking of the vari- 

 ous epidemics, said there had been no great epi- 

 demic of yellow fever in this country since 1878- 

 '79, but that several local epidemics had been re- 

 corded. Smallpox, malaria, cholera, and typhus 

 fever were growing milder, and were coming to 

 be less feared. Dr. Arthur K. Reynolds, of Chi- 

 cago, reported on the conditions in the North- 

 west, and spoke for the necessity of uniform 

 quarantine regulations, not only between the na- 

 tional and State boards, but between the boards 

 of the American republics as well. 



Quarantining of vessels from infected ports 

 having on board yellow fever, cholera, or bubonic 

 plague was discussed at length at the afternoon 

 session. The subject was introduced in a paper 

 by Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, and th- discussion was 

 principally on the question whether five days was 

 long enough for detention of persons suspected of 

 having yellow fever. Some of the delegates fa- 

 vored ten days, and the subject was finally re- 

 ferred to the advisory council, which presented 

 a resolution for the detention of suspected cases 

 of yellow fever and cholera for five days, and 

 those of bubonic plague for seven days. 



Dr. Edmond Souchon, president of the Board 



of Health 'of Louisiana, read a paper, which was 

 discussed at length, on maritime quarantine with- 

 out detention of non-infected vessels from ports 

 quarantined against yellow fever. He said: " The 

 key-note of this stride in modern scientific quar- 

 antine was struck by the Louisiana State Board 

 of Health when it passed, "on Sept. 2, 1902, the 

 resolution that reads: 'Free pratique shall be 

 given to non-infected vessels, with or without 

 passengers, from ports where yellow fever is sus- 

 pected or prevails, provided said vessels are dis- 

 infected at the port of departure, or at the last 

 port touched at, in a manner satisfactory to the 

 Louisiana State Board of Health; provided, fur- 

 ther, that said vessels upon arriving at the Mis- 

 sissippi river quarantine station shall be disin- 

 fected again, and provided still further that five 

 full days shall have expired since the completion 

 of the first disinfection before the second disinfec- 

 tion is done at the Mississippi river quarantine 

 station.' These regulations are based upon the 

 study, mostly, of the records of the Louisiana 

 State Board of Health, which show that a num- 

 ber of non-infected vessels have developed yellow 

 fever after a first disinfection." 



At the closing session of the conference, on the 

 third day, the mosquito received a good share 

 of attention, and several resolutions bearing upon 

 the subject of infection from the insect were dis- 

 cussed. Dr. Guiteras, of Cuba, presented a reso- 

 lution to the effect that the mosquito was the 

 only known cause of yellow-fever infection, which, 

 after some modification, was adopted. Dr. Ar- 

 thur K. Reynolds, of Chicago, offered the reso- 

 lution that the different governments study in 

 their respective territories the geographical dis- 

 tribution of the mosquito of the genus Steffoiuia, 

 in order that said study may have practical ap- 

 plication in subsequent conventions. Another 

 resolution offered by Dr. Reynolds was to the 

 effect that bubonic plague and other diseases are 

 spread by rats, mice, and other lower animals, 

 which to a great extent find sustenance in ani- 

 mal and vegetable kitchen wastes, commonly 

 called garbage, and that all organic waste or 

 garbage should be kept separately on the premises 

 until it can be removed or mixed with a disin- 

 fectant or destroyed. He said that, inasmuch as. 

 typhoid fever and Asiatic cholera are caused by 

 swallowing food or drink contaminated by the 

 discharges of previous cases, if all the discharges 

 of every existing case were instantly disinfected, 

 typhoid fever and Asiatic cholera would cease 

 to be a menace to the world. 



Papers were read on Simplicity in Sanitary 

 Measures, by Dr. Joseph Y. Porter, State health 

 officer of Florida; Vessels as Carriers of Mos- 

 quitos, by Dr. S. B. Grubbs, Marine-Hospital 

 Service; and Uncinariasis with Microscopic 

 Demonstration, by Dr. Charles W. Stiles. Marine- 

 Hospital Service. Regarding this parasite, popu- 

 larly known as the hookworm, Dr! Stiles made 

 the interesting statement that it was responsible 

 for the condition of the so-called poor whites in 

 the sand districts of the South. The procure nf 

 the hookworm, he said, was the cause of their 

 poor physical and mental state, the parasite in 

 the human system producing a condition of ex- 

 treme anemia, similar in its symptoms to a severe 

 attack of malaria, and that any generation of 

 people placed imder these conditions must deteri- 

 orate. The condition of the children in the fac- 

 tories of the South was not due so much to the 

 work as to the effect produced upon the system 

 by this noxiovis hookworm. Its eradication, he 

 declared, was the only means for bringing about 

 better conditions among these people. 



