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 climinated 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 
