Some months ago we remarked, in reference to the reported occurrence of cases of Asiatic cholera in Shanghai, upon the total absence of any means for the tracing of epidemics from point to point through the Empire of China, Nothing has since been done, nor indeed is anything likely to be done, towards supplying this want, although, unless we are greatly mistaken, information of the kind indicated would be of the greatest possible value as forewarning, and (bus forearming, against the onset of epidemic disease. It is well known that in British India o carefal and constant watch is maintained over all the maladies which threaten life in that country, and that cholera and typhoid fever receive particular attention. In Japan within the last few years a system almost as elaborate as that adopted in India has been put in force, with the result of enabling the Government to arrest in some cases and to curtail in others the progress of the cholera epidemic which swept over the Empire in 1877. The steps taken, the results obtained, and the lessons learned are all set forth in detail in an official report addressed by Dr. Nagayo Seusai, Director of the Central Sanitary Barean, to the Minister of the Home Department, which document has been forwarded tous. The general public is not directly concerned in the particulars of this report, and we allude to it merely for the purpose of noting what has been done in Japan as @ contrast to the absolute indifference which reign in China in regard to everything affecting the public health.
Tt is not, however, merely under the panic of an epidemic that the Japanese are roused to concern for the sanitary condition of the people. So far back as 1873, a "Bureau of Medica Affairs" was established in connection with the Education Department, with the design of gradually bringing about a change from the old system of medical education toa new system borrowed from the western world, to improve the position and increase the usefulness of physicians and apothecaries, and to keep public attention alive to the importance of sanitary measures. Under the contro} of the Bureau were placed the sale of secret remedies, and the prepa tion of compounds containing poisonous or dangerous ingredients, This latter measure, which by the way was not stringently enforced until 1877, was rendered necessary by the fact that whereas foreign patent medicines profess to cure only one disease, the secret nostrums largely sold in Japan professed to cure all manner of diseases, and must therefore have been either always inert or sometimes hurtful. The official reporter, though he writes admirable English, cannot have paid mud attention to English literature as represented in newspaper advertise. ments, else he would know that there are at least a score of foreign quack preparations announced to cure every malady from the first that falls under A to.tbe last that falls under Z, In 1849 a Datch physician named Monnik introduced vaccination into Japan, and the practice was from time to time encouraged by some of the great Daimios, but the prejudices of the people, the fitful and Inkewarm support of the authorities, and the difficulties in the way of collecting and preserve ing lymph, militated against every attempt to make vaccination general. In 1874 a vaccine depot was established at Tokio whence lymph was distributed throughout the country; the local authorities were instructed to enforce gradually the practice of vaccination, and the treatment of small-pox was modified so far as gentle official interference could modify it. The recognised plan was to treat patients as objects of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.