YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC. What Should Ba Done?—imperative Need of a National Sanitary Board. To the Editor of the Post: Sir—Many years ago, when the city of Mem- phis was stricken with a fearful epidemic of yellow fever and the disease threatened all the States adjaeent, if not the whole country, a national board of health, with full power and an ample supply of money from the United States Treasury, met the emergency vigorously and for the time being virtually held the city, and, surrounding it by proper sanitary laws, squelched the disease on the spot where it first showed itself in all its epi- demic virulence. Haying done this, Dr. J. S. Hillings, the board’s efficient agent, taught the people of Memphis how to purify them- selves of the filth in which they had pre- viously lived, all unconscious of the peril that springs from any unsanitary conditions, wher- ev r existing. To do all this the board needed and appar- ently possessed the full confidence of the na- tion at huge, aud could draw largely from fnnds voted by Congress. It is greatly to be regretted that this harmonious cooperation be- tween the board aud Congress and the Presi- dent w:is, under the fatal influences of poli- tics, lost. The board, deprived of its funds, which were given into the hands of the United States Hospi al Marine Corps, had subse- quently to its great work on the Mississippi to resign its beneficent operations, aud has been in obscurity since. Its members could not be dishonored, for they were honorable and able men. But they were virtually crushed, and all power was transferred to a body of men, most of them unknown as sanitarians, it was, as I think unwisely, argued that these gentle- men, surgeons of ail the marine hospitals throu bout the country, were a body fitted to cope with an outbreak of a terrible epidemic. To my mind such a proposition seemed whollv a mistaken one. How could a body separated as the corps is into isolated positions through- out our immense domain, and with no special san.tary experience or tendencies, hope to equal in efficiency a body of experts in sani- tary science, meeting in conclave at Washing- ton, and with eyes always open to such emergencies, able to act at once. Tiie bare statement of the difference be- twe it the two bodies must, I think, strike any unprejudiced min 1 of the real misfortune that befeli the country when the change was made. And what made the matter seem worse to my mind was the rumor that the chief of the marine hospital service had stated that he should not do anything in regard to malignant diseases appearing in any part of the country until he was officially informed by the execu- tive of the State in which such disease existed that it was in an epidemic form, and therefore called for the national succor. To wait for such appeal would inevitably always be too late for really efficient service. A national sanitary board is established, or ought to be established, for the very purpose of preventing, if possible, the smallest sign of an epidemic. It would do this by summarily establishing sanitary rules of quarantine, by disinfection of the locality and any other proper means. But what has been the fact in regard to this epidemic of yellow fever at Jacksonville? It has apparently been al- lowed to spread; or at least it has spread until it is seemingly beyond control. The recent sudden and melancholy death of Pro- lessor Proctor in New York is a ghastly warn- ing to all of us. No one can foretell where the disease may hereafter show itself, for refugees from Florida may be in various parts of the country. It becomes, therefore, the duty of every man and woman in the land to urge Congress to re- es! ablish the national hoard of health, or at least to give us some national sanitary board wl'.ose sole duty shall be to watch over the health of our people and to crush out imme- diately and with an unsparing hand even a spark of malignant disease as soon as it shows itself. Let no epidemics be allowed to go unchecked. God grant that the national board of health have a new birth, and with greater powers, if need be, in the same manner as that by which our Massachusetts State board of health was regenerated after having fallen by the influ- ence of political partisanship into hopeless im- becility and almost total disregard of sanitary work! As the Massachusetts board stands now vastly higher and has more power for good over our State than ever before, so let us hope for this nation. To gain this object the People must demand of Congress the establish- ment of some national sanitary authority with the fullest powers to act promptly and effi- ciently. Let us all take hold and help in this great cause. Every citizen should see to it that his Representative and Senators in Con- gress are appealed to on this grave matter. Meanwhile let us send ample help to our suffering fellow-citizens in Jacksonville. I see that our efficient Mayor of Boston has es- tablished a bureau of relief at the City Hall. Let everybody send of his or her small or ample means, and thereby do a share towards the alleviation of the sufferings of the inhab- itants of Jacksonville. I remain yours faith- fully, Henry I. BawciTCH. Boston, Sept. 14, 1888.