Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: British West Indian Conference on Quarantine, 1888. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![Dr. PEING-LE: I should suggest after desirable the insertion of the •words for the purpose 'of guiding the various Quarantine authorities. Dr. GEIEVE : Do you agree with it, Dr. Crane? Dr. CEANE : I think there should be some authentic statement as to the health of the country, to be published for information. Dr. GEIEVE : That is rather dif- ferent : we do publish here. Mr. SANDEESON: We have been getting lately fortnightly returns from the British Consul at Colon, and they have been of very great help to us. Dr. PEINGLE : I second the resolu- tion. Dr. BOWEN : I should like to know if it is to apply only to each colony which has sent delegates here ? Dr. GEIEVE : We are simply recom- mending what seems best to be done to ascertain the health of the colony. Dr. BOWEN: You would have to do more than notify the deaths that have occurred. It won't do to have a return of the deaths only. If, as in England, you had a system of notification of disease, it would be all right, but until these colonies have a system of notifying regularly the diseases existent over and above the mortality, what you are speak- ing about will be impossible. It won't show you the health of Demerara if she sends out a return showing you two deaths from yellow fever when besides that she might have had a dozen cases not proving fatal. Dr. GEIEVE : In England, death registration is always taken as the gauge of the public health. Their system is mainly dependent for its ground work upon the registrars' re- turns of deaths. I think every colony in the West Indies ought to have a system of registration of deaths. Where we have to deal with public health questions, this is of vital im- portance, because until we know what is killing the people, it is impossible to do a single thing in the prevention of disease. If a colony were to send nothing else besides the notification of deaths, still the monthly returns of mortality would be a great guide as to the health of the colony, and help us in our quarantine and preventive measures. Dr, CEANE : I am not at all sure that the registration of deaths can be taken as a reliable indication of the health of a colony. We have a system in Trinidad, but its defect is that it permits any person to inform of the death, and in some districts there may be a dozen persons giving information so that one death may be recorded as a dozen deaths and from a dozen differ- ent diseases. That is owing to the imperfect system of registration, and there being no proper medical certificate. Mr. BEEKELEY : In our case it is the doctor. Mr. low : Are we not drifting into the question of the necessity of registra- tion in the colonies, instead of quarantine only ? I think we are drifting into questions of sanitation, which must be local matters. The PEESIDENT : The question is the interchange of information between the colonies. Dr. PEINGLE : I may say that so advanced is the colony of Jamaica in these matters that we have both regis- tration of deaths and notification of disease. Eesolution, as amended, carried. [See Minutes, Fifth Sitting. Page 74.] Mr. BEEKELEY: I would ask the delegates, what do they intend ? At the present moment, suppose one colony represented here declared a place an infected place, what do hon. mem- bers suppose will follow ? Will it be necessary for every other colony to do the same ? At present we have not arrived at that. Is this Conference pre- pared to recommend that became one colony declares a place an infected place it is incumbent on the other colonies to do so likewise ? The PEESIDENT : If we quaran- tine Martinique and Barbados does not, we must quarantine Barbados, I think. Mr. BEEKELEY : That has been the practice ; but don't you think it is desirable for us to come to some expres- sion of opinion on that point ?](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21297678_0198.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
