On Public 21fethorls of Prevention.
We have no reason to doubt that, as long as the wise laws which Christian Europe has established to prevent the introduction and spreading of the plague, are rigidly obeyed, they will continue to be as efficacious as they have hitherto been in this respect. The many plagues, however, which have appeared among these nations, and among others, one that was introduced into Gressenber, in Siberia, as lately as 1820, prove that negelect of these regulations is at any time sufficient to permit this formi dable poison to establish itself among us. In these cases, the original evil arises in the ports where cotton and other goods are shipped ; and it appears, too, that the precau tions always resorted to in case of sea•carriage, are very much neglected when these articles are conveyed over land.
The most pernicious neglect of this nature is that which takes place among the ports of the Turkish empire itself, though it appears that they are at length becoming sensi ble of the value of preventative means, and that such, more or less perfect, have already been adopted in many of the towns of the Levant. This has been the case par ticularly at Salonica and Cyprus; and in Egypt, the new Pacha has built a lazaretto at Alexandria, among many other improvements in the general condition of that coun try'. If Egypt, however, continues, as it always has been, the original nursery of the disease, these precautions can at least never exterminate it ; and, under the Turkish go vernment, it is scarcely to be expected that measures of prevention will ever be generally adopted. It is our duty, therefore, never to relax, since our safety must depend on ourselves.
As the plague has lately been raging all round the Ma hometan shores of the Mediterranean, the strictest regu lations have been enforced, particularly on the coasts of France and Spain. Troops are established along the shore at various places, and guard boats are employed in keep ing off every vessel that might approach the land. It is a capital crime for any one to enter, or to introduce mer chandise privately. Nor is any vessel arriving from Bar bary, Egypt, or Turkey, allowed to enter a port, except under the regulations of the quarantine, or any vessel which has, at sea, communicated with others from these ports. At Marseilles, the same strict regulations are ex
tended to fishing boats that are suspected to have dealings with vessels at sea. and other regulations, have always been found effectual wherever the plague has been raging violently ; and wherever that disease has been in troduced, it has been when its existence was not suspected in the Mahomztan states; a proof that the misfortune has arisen from relaxing or neglecting the regulations. This shows the necessity of strictness ; particularly as these nations always conceal the existence of the disease among them as long as they can.
Whatever details be adopted in these regulations, their object is to prevent communication between all persons or things in a state of suspicion, and those who are in health ; the same general principles being applicable as in all cases of specific contagion in other diseases. The efficacy of all the regulations which commonly go by the name of quarantine, was fully established in the French army in Egypt as long as they could be adhered to ; and the re verse took place as soon as the disturbances arising from the state of war prevented them from heing duly enforced.
One of the most difficult parts of the quarantine regu lations consists in the treatment of infected goods. These are received in lazarettos, and subjected to purification by water, and by exposure to the sun and air, or to artificial heat. When this is effectually done, the time required for this purification need not exceed a few days, though fear and prejudice have not generally concurred in this belief. The tents employed for the plague patients lately in Cephalonia were returned into the stores safely. after being merely washed four or five times successively in sea water, and dried in the sun. We may therefore conclude, that a11 bale goods received into lazarettos might equally be purified in a few days, and that fourteen, with proper care, are fully as much as can ever be required. Making allowance for some neglect on the part of the officers em ployed, twenty ought to be sufficient for all purposes ; as, far within this time, should the disease be present, it must be communicated, since it cannot lie dormant in the hu man body.