Service publications.

  • Australia. Quarantine Service.
Date:
1915-1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Service publications. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    INTO AUSTRALIA. From, time to time various writers have drawn attention to the prospect of Australia becoming infected witli yellow fever, and particularly has attention been drawn to the increase of this risk which will attend the opening of the Panama Canal for traflQ.c. Sir Patrick Manson (1) in 1903, discussed this subject as follows :— Hitherto there has been no direct communication between the endemic haunts of yellow fever and Asia. It is quite true that there has existed for some decades an active communication between Western America and Asia ; but this communication has been exclusively between points far to the north or far to the south of the yellow fever region, and therefore, in respect to this disease, free from risk. But with the opening of the Canal there will come a change ; a huge and increasing commerce will pass through the yellow fever region direct to Asia. Hitherto the course of ships has been well to the north or well to the south of the tropic belt, and ger erally in cold or temperate zones, in temperatures inimical to yellow fever and the distributor of yellow fever. But the new route—the direct route from Panama to Japan, China, Manila, the Straits Settlements, Java, and Australia—will be through the tropics, and, for the most part, in atmospheric conditions favourable to yellow fever and the mosquito distributor! Furthermore, the route, instead of being somethmg like 50 days, including transhipments, from Panama to Asia, will be reduced to three or four weeks, and include no transhipments, and the coaling ports that will be established in the tropical parts of the Pacific will serve as convenient jumpmg-o£E places for the gradual advance of the f^erm. That yeUow fever can be successfully exported, so to speak, from the endemic area, is proved by the various epidemics that have ravaged the south of Europe. During the discussion which followed the reading of the paper in which the above views were expressed, various leading scientific authorities, such as Dr. Strong (Director of the Biological Laboratory in Manila), Dr. Nuttall, Dr. Sambon, Dr. G. C. Low, and others, thoroughly endorsed this view of the danger to Asia and Australia. Major S. P. James, the Secretary to the Sanitary Commissioner to the Government of India, was detailed by that Government in 1911 to proceed to Central America and report upon the conditions in that endemic area and in the principal seaports between that country and India. After considering the effect of the opening of the Panama Canal in the direction of shortening trade routes. Major James in his report (2) reviews the position as follows:— Distances, of course, are not the only factors to be considered in attempting to foretell future trade routes, but m the present case, the conclusions to which their study leads are supported by other considerations, and, on the whole, it scorns clear that the spread lilr!-^^. . '! ''^^^ happens, will not bo the result of direct trans-Pacifio A^frf ^ ''try from, or through, the endemic area in Central and Southern fhTn T 1- V/ho »amo Ime of enquiry is now applied with regard to ports further east than India, it will be found that when wo got beyond Singapore the conclusions are, with one important exception, the reverse of those arrived at regarding Inilia ; i.i general, the distances o Japan, China, Australia, and the East Indies, will bo niucii shorter by thrn?,!I '■'^./han by the present one, and for this reason direct traflio to .those countries inrough and from, the endemic area may bo expected. An examination of the columns ^nH ir, 1 rf' «*'\tcment which refer to ports beyond Singapore will make this clear, and m addition, it will be noted that by the now route Yokohama and Australia wUl bo nearer to New York than to London.