danger of spreading the disease is over. This is a point of great importance, and its neglect may result in grave disaster. 6. For the convenience of the survivors and of the laborers who may be brought to the place, it will be necessary for the health authorities to see that public privies, or closets, are erected. These should be placed where most convenient. They should be examined by inspectors of the different districts, and should be under the charge of a careful and reliable foreman, who will daily disinfect them. No foul odors should ever be permitted to arise from these places. 7. If the free discharge from the sewers is impeded by débris, these should be opened at once, so that water may be discharged through them freely. In the case of floods it will very frequently be found that the mouths of the sewers have been silted shut. These should be opened. The escape of foul gases from sewers at such a time is not to be permitted. 8. There is always, in time of disasters, danger of the people becoming panic-stricken from fear of a pestilence arising, and in our times well-meaning but ignorant persons are very liable to convey messages to the daily press which tend to excite and distress the survivors. To prevent any panic in this way, the State Board of Health found it necessary to issue occasionally "health bulletins," which stated the exact condition of the public health in the devastated district. These bulletins were printed and posted throughout the whole region, and they were thought to do much good. They were founded on the daily reports received from the sanitary inspectors, from the other physicians in the district, and from the hospitals. In addition to these "health bulletins," the people may be greatly aided by issuing "circulars of information." These circulars describe in the plainest language the proper ways to disinfect the premises, to clean them up, and about what should be eaten, and those things which will best tend to preserve health in the midst of unfavorable conditions. These circulars of information should be placed in each house throughout the district as often as may be deemed necessary. 9. It may, in some cases, be desirable to partially or wholly depopulate the devastated district. This may be done by laying out a town of tents, and then requiring the people to remove from their homes into it. Such a town should be laid out as a military camp, and should be under the same regulations as are military camps. At Johnstown, a partial depopulation only was attempted. The State furnished free transportation to all women and children who desired to go elsewhere to their friends for a few weeks or months, and all were urged to go for a short time. For several weeks, also, transportation was given the men who applied for the same. In this way the population was largely reduced. 10. If the distress of the survivors is very great, it may be necessary for the sanitary officers to assist the inhabitants in the disinfecting and cleansing of their homes. At Johnstown some thirteen hundred cellars were cleansed by the State, and the débris was removed from the streets and lots, wherever it was found to contain the bodies of human beings and animals in numbers sufficient to endanger the public health. This work of cleansing the district can only be considered the work of the State so long as the district is in a condition to be denominated a public nuisance. When this ceases, the work of the State must also cease. 11. So soon as the disinfectants arrive, the sanitary officer must see to their proper distribution and instruct the people as to their proper use. At Johnstown, each sanitary inspector in charge of a district was authorized to open one or more depots, in places most convenient for the inhabitants of his district, in which depots disinfectants were stored. Large placards were then printed and posted over each district, telling the inhabitants where they could obtain disinfectants, and urging them to go and obtain supplies of the same. Circulars of information were given to all who applied, as also oral information, explaining how to use each disinfectant. The result was, that people came by the hundreds and carried the disinfectants to their homes, using them with good effect. These stations should be kept open just so long as the district is in a bad sanitary condition. Reference may be made here to the mode of using some of the more common disinfectants. The débris formed of the broken houses and forest trees, together with carpets, bedding, and household effects which had become worthless, were, at Johnstown, destroyed by fire, along with the bodies of the domestic animals. For fully three weeks. immense fires were burning at Johnstown, formed of the débris, and in these fires hundreds of animals were cremated. In the case of a great flood, those articles which it is desirable to burn may be water-soaked, as was the case at Johnstown. Cremation in such cases may be hastened by the addition of petroleum, though at Johnstown a large donation of tar and rosin, made by the citizens of Wilmington, N. C., was used to aid in the combustion of these wet substances. The rosin was found to have very advantageous properties when applied to the cremation of carcasses. It appeared to destroy the unpleasant odors arising from the burning flesh, and in place gave out an agreeable balsamic fragrance. It also burned with great heat, hastening combustion, and could not be extinguished by heavy rains. By using rosin liberally, and adding driftwood, there was no trouble in entirely destroying the domestic animals with a single firing. The tar was not so valuable in this work as the rosin. Large quantities of quicklime were used at Johnstown, and found to be very valuable for drying the cellars and absorbing unpleasant odors. The people were advised to whitewash their cellars and homes a number of times, as the lime was believed to be very beneficial. Chloride of lime was used also in sprinkling in the cellars and about the houses. The Board of Health also furnished in solution bromine, chloride of lime, carbolic acid, and Quibbells's disinfectant. These were applied by means of sprinkling-cans. So soon also as the streets were cleared of the débris, two sprinklingcarts were set running. These used a solution of disinfectants, which had a good effect upon the general atmosphere, and an excellent moral effect, maintaining the confidence of the people. At times, the workmen who are cleaning up the district will imagine that they detect foul odors, and that it is dangerous for them to work without a liberal use of disinfectants. In these cases the presence of a laborer with a sprinkling-can, applying a solution of disinfectants, produces a very reassuring effect. Disinfectants should be freely used about the morgues and in every place where it can be hoped that they will do good. In this connection it may be stated, to the credit of the manufacturers of disinfectants, that, without knowing the means of the Board of Health to pay them, they promptly filled all orders for their supplies without a moment's questioning. 12. That the district may be entirely within the control of the sanitarian, it is important that, as soon as possible, a house-tohouse inspection or survey be made of all the houses which are occupied in the district. This survey should be carefully recorded on blanks prepared for the purpose, and should state whether the house is occupied by owner or tenant, the number of rooms, number of families, the adult males, the adult females, and children under five years of age. It should also state the condition of the cellar, kitchen, and living-rooms. The water-supply should be examined and reported upon, as to source, condition, and amount. The drainage of the premises should be carefully looked into. The privy or water-closet should receive a minute inspection. The surveyor should examine the condition of the yard and stable, and the streets and alleys about the house. Note should also be made of any present sickness in the house, and of the existence of any contagious disease in the house during or within six months preceding. If any deaths have occurred within the house in a year, record should be made of them. With all these points before the Board of Health, if the survey has been made with care, it will not be difficult for the Board to maintain good health in the devastated district-certainly not if they have the confidence of the survivors. If the devastated district is situated upon a stream, as was the case at Johnstown, it will be necessary for the Board of Health to watch that no cause of disaster to regions below is overlooked. It may be necessary to patrol the river below and open drift-piles and burn the carcasses of domestic animals. If the stream is the water-supply for towns or cities below, at the earliest possible moment it must be placed in a condition not to carry disease to such places. In a word, in a great national disaster, the Board of Health must be prepared to meet each and every emergency as it may arise. MISSIONS AND MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA.* FR BY HENRY W. HENSHAW. ROM the time of its discovery by Grijalva in 1534 until 1697, a number of fruitless attempts had been made by the Mexican authorities to colonize the peninsula of Lower California, and no small amount of treasure had been wasted in the efforts. The sole obstacle to the success of the schemes for colonization lay not in the indolent and peaceably disposed Indians, but in the barren and inhospitable nature of the country itself, the wastes of which offered but moderate subsistence to the natives, and nothing whatever to satisfy the love of adventure and the thirst for wealth of the Spaniard. Finding that all attempts to colonize the new country were failures, the Mexican Government turned it. over to the Jesuits, who readily undertook its subjection to ecclesiastical authority. The first settlement was made on the Bay of San Dionisio in 1697. The establishment of the missions proper began immediately, and between this period and 1745 no fewer than fourteen were established on the peninsula. It was not until 1769 that the occupancy of Upper California was inaugurated by the founding of the mission of San Diego by the Franciscans, who had superseded the Jesuits in charge of mission work in western Spanish America. From this date until 1823 mission after mission was established to the number of twenty-one, until the entire coast area of California up to and a little beyond the Bay of San Francisco was under mission sway. As mission history forms one of the most interesting chapters relating to the aborigines of this continent, it is the purpose of the present paper to briefly notice the subject, with especial reference to some of the more salient features of mission life and its effect upon the natives. *The accompanying illustrations are from photographs generously loaned by Mr. S. I. Jannus, who obtained them in 1889. VOL. XXXVII.-34 |