Show EPIDEMICS IN MANilA I I Three Diseases Which Would Cause Panic Elsewhere J I BUBONIC PLAGUE IS ONE II I s Beriberi Another This However Is I Not Feared by the Whites Smallpox Small-pox tho ThirdLatfer and Leprosy I the Philippines Always Have Effort I Ef-fort Made by Health Authorities to 1 I Stamp Out the PestDeath Rate in I Philippine Capital is Very High I Over 40 Per Cent I 1 Correspondence Associated Press Manila March bThe census of Manila Ma-nila Just completed by the Health department de-partment gives the city an unpleasantly high rank among the unhealthful cities of the world It establishes a death I rate of something over 40 per cent at a conservative estimate Former estimates I esti-mates and cencuses had always given Manila 30000D population This census I was a careful count of natives and I Chinese living In buildings and boats in I the notice districts of Manila and It gave a total of 190719 of whom 30000 were Chinamen There are to be added the Inhabitants of several villages within the city limits Americans and Europeans and 1400 priests in the monasteries mon-asteries Upon reliable Information the officials estimate their number at between be-tween 50000 and GOO ODE O-DE THS IN SIX MONTHS The deaths in Manila officially reported re-ported during the six months from July 1st to December 21st last year were C203 Of these 2541 were children Some of the principal causes were berlberlt B70 tuberculosis 3S3 bronchitis 311 dysentery 229 fevers 2S7 while stomach stom-ach troubles ranked high Manila now bus three diseases epl domlc whIch would throw the average community into a panic bubonic plague berlberl and smallpox Beriberi results from a diet of fish and rice so that whites do not fear it SMALLPOX AND LEPROSY Smallpox and leprosy the Philippines always have and the people look upon them as a matter of course avoiding direct contact but hardly giving a second sec-ond thoughtto their presence In the neighborhood Smallpox nourishes In some parts of Luzon constantly Half of the natives In the country districts aro pitted with It and mothers try to I get their children Infected with It under un-der the belief that It Is less dangerous to the young The towns along the is northern coast and on the railroad between be-tween Manila and Dagupan arc full of smallpox now SOLDIERS ARE VICTIMS Gen Bells famous volunteer regiment regi-ment the Thirtysix Is suffering from I an epidemic Lieut Toncray and Lieut Wing both of whom were Tennessee Ten-nessee volunteers and several soldiers have died and there are other cases In the regiment NUMBER OF LEPERS The easygoing natives and Span iard paid so little attention to leprosy that the Philippines have never been noted for that disease but there arc more than a hundred lepers in the Mat Ma-t I nlla hospital Bubonic plague Is a visitor to which distance lends terror Two months ago I the first casewai ell Gcrpd ln Manila Since that time there haVb been 200 cases according to theestlinatcs of the health Officers anratleast SO per cent of them have resulted fatally Yet there has been no panic no families have lied from the city nor has the usual routine of life In the city been disturbed MEASURES STOP DISEASE The repressive measures of the health I officers have been comparatively simple sim-ple but have proven remarkably effective effec-tive considering conditions they have had to light Their aim has been to make the city clean and keep It clean This Is I the last thing the masses of FH I inlnos and Chlnahien propose to do unless un-less l dtoven to It DANGER FROM CHINESE They dont understand It they consider con-sider It only a form of persecution oxnlalned SurgeonMaJ Ira C D Brown when asked If the natives were dlsuosed to cooperate in this work The Filipinos are one of the most scrupulous scru-pulous people In the world about personal per-sonal cleanliness Their knowledge of sanitation however was gained entirely entire-ly from the Spaniards and Is defective The lower classes of Chinese tire worse as the fact that twothirds of the plague cases have been among them although they number but a small minority mi-nority of the population testifies White people have escaped altogether NO SEWERAGE Manila Is practically without sewerage sewer-age and because of its low level the cost of a system on modern lines would be almost prohibitive As an offset Is the character of the nips huts inhabited Inhab-ited by most of the natives which stand on Hosts above the ground free from rats and eIlentlI tel PLAGUE IN CAVITE The plague Is supposed to have begun In Cavlte It first appeared In Manila I In the walled city only a stones throw from the palace where army headquarters headquar-ters are and throe persons were dead I before the natureof their disease wits suspected Most of the later cases have been in the same section or the Availed city or In the Chinese quarter near the water front Immediately SurgconMaJ Edlc the health olficer orcanlzcd a force of Inspectors to enforce en-force rigid sanitary measures on everybody every-body and the plague work was put in charge oT MaJ Brown It was necessary neces-sary > to have men who could speak the language of the people explain to them what the Inspections meant and direct them how to keep their premises clean so Filipinos had to bo enlisted COMPLICATIONS CREATED The rtce < question created complications complica-tions Immediately Between Filipinos and ChJnarpen there exists an Invoi crate hatred The Filipino Inspectors delighted Inthe chance to r square grudges against their traditional enemies ene-mies They J1roGeedeGtQJjle a b = tch of warrants far maintaining nuisances at police headquarteis and most of them wore against Chinamen who proved on investigation to be the most Tromlncnt and least offending of their race UNEXPECTED HELP Help came from an unexpected quarter quar-ter for the rich Chinese merchants under the leadership of Palanka the former ConsulGeneral and the chief magnate among them offered to furnish fur-nish thirty Inspectors to work among their countrymen and keep the Chinese reasonably glean INSPECTORS AT WORK There are now 100 Inspectors at work In Manila thirty of them Chinamen and the others Filipinos They are sent out In squads usually two Filipinos Fili-pinos and a Chinaman with a soldier to boss them and see that they do their work and abstain from blackmailing Iaj Brown and the officers of the Health department boss the soldiers and Inspectors Whenever a plague victim is i discovered he Is sent to the Chinese or the Filipino hospital If It is possible to ri ove him The house Is thoroughly disinfected a bonfire Is I s mad of everything movable a vellow 1 placard announcing bubonic pestr > up pears on the door while a sentry stands guard to keep people away Four days the house Is kept cloned and the inmates in-mates are Isolated When two or three cases develop In one street the street Is barred against business DEAD COVERED WITH LIME The dead Chinamen are burled In a grave eight feet deep In the Chinese cemetery and covered with limo The bodies of Filipinos arc burned when tho relatives wIll consent Cremation Is desirable for all but the Chinese superstition super-stition against burning their dead Is so strong that any attempt to compel It would result In concealment of the cases and possibly riots The estimate of 200 deaths includes the probable number of cases which have boon kept from the knowledge of the authorities CONTROLLING THE PEST The officials have hoped that when the rainy season gets fairly underway under-way wIth a few sixInch showers It will wash up the town so thoroughly that plague will bt Impossible Even at Its worst the surgeons who had experience ex-perience In dealing with yellow fever in Cuba consider the bubonic plague easier to control than Its South American Ameri-can rival Already the number of cases weekly reported Is decreasing |