YEIULftW FETSM 
And the National Board of Health; 
\From the Pensacola Advance, March 10th, 1880.] 
Dr. J. C. Le Hardy, of Savannah, Ga., 
is agitating to limit the powers of the 
National Board of Health, or rather to 
prevent their extension or giviug “it a 
political influence that may be used to in\ 
jure any section of the country.” Dr. 
Hargis having received a Circular and 
a private letter calling on him to aid in 
organizing an opposition to a Bill intro- 
duced in Congress, by so good a Souther- 
ns as Senator Harris of Tennessee, has 
replied in terms which cannot fail to have 
full weight, with the community. There 
aresanit.ui as who have local interests, 
i to on.ntl, !ind who dread ;>.< ti'’e super- 
vision pom without. With these Dr- 
Hargis has no sympathy. He is doubtless 
afraid that Dr. Le Hardy’s method of 
stirring up the country, may give a Inin- 
die to plans and projects which Dr. Le 
Hardy himself might be the first to con- 
demn. The National Board of Health has 
no political significance whatever. Such 
men as Dr. Cabell of Virginia, Dr. Mitch> 
of Memphis and Dr. Beinis of New Or' 
leans aie Southern men. Drs. Billings 
and Turner belong to no siction since they 
are Army and Navy Officers. Apart 
from the Solicitor General we know of no 
member of the National Board who has 
other than a stiong claim as a medical 
mail, and none as a politician, to hold 
the position to which he was originally 
nominated. It is vveil such a fact should 
lie known and widely published, since the 
prevention of plagues is too important a 
matter in the South to be made the sub- 
ject of any angry or senseless discussion 
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, t 
March 8th, 1880. ) 
Du. J. C. Le Hardy, 
Savannah, Ga. 
Dear Sir:—Your circular letter and note 
have duly reached me, and, I regret you 
think that Congress may “inflict upon our coun- 
try laws which must prove detrimental to the 
commercial, as well as, the political prosperity of 
the Republic.” I felt reassured, however, when 
I learned that the indefatigable Chairman of the 
Senate Committee oil Epidemic Diseases—no less 
a man than Governor Isham G. Harris of Ten- 
nessee-had charge of this objectionable Bill. 
Within the limits of this reply 1 cannot pre- 
tend to review the operations and the future ten- 
dencies of the National Board of Health. You 
say “now is youi time to work lor your theory.” 
I have worked throughout the entire period of 
my. professional carre.r, at the History and 
Pathologj of Yellow Fevei, and it will be my 
earnest endeavour to afford such proofs to the 
Medical Prof<"«sion, on the Ship origin of this 
plague, in thtl troplcai Atlantic, as must, in ray 
opinion, prove convincing. But I have no sym- 
pathy with clogging ttie wheels of Sanitary legis- 
lation, for any personal ends or motives of self- 
aggrandizement. 
The National Board of Health has been unfor- 
tunate in favoring the view that Yellow Fever is 
endemic in Cuba. The Report of the Havana 
Commission must, before another decade is past> 
meet, as it reserves, with the strongest condem- 
nation. Such is my opinion on this une point. 
It is difficult enough to get the Spanish Govern- 
ment to do its duty, towards this country, by 
purifying the Pearl of the Antilles, and how can 
we hope for their energetic action when an 
American physician, clothed with all the pres- 
tige of authority, assures the world that Yellow 
Fever in Havana is inevitable? 
In this most healthy region, singularly free 
from contagious maladies, where climatic sea- 
sonal conditions, only rarely favor the propaga- 
tion of imported yellow lever, and where the 
winter hybernation of the malady has been proved 
impossible over a period, to my knowledge, of 30 
years, how can we throw open our Port to com. 
rnerce, in the summer ur.d autumn, when a single 
ship from Cuba having one esse of the disease on 
board, will close all inland communication? 
It is, I conless. with absolute impatience that 
1 learn of the eon inned advocacy of the local 
origin of yellow fever, either on this Continent 01- 
in the West India Islands. The blunders of the 
Profession are still in striking contrast to the 
common sense of the people, on the one vital 
question of the communicability of this disease. 
The eloquent teachings of shot-gun quarantine— 
detestable as every form of real or aoparent in- 
humanity must be—may yet drive home the sub- 
stantial truths, in relation to the transmissibility 
ol the malady by Railroads and refugees. 
When I reflect that a most worthy represcnta 
tive of the Medical Profession in the South. Dr 
Cabell, is President of the National Board of 
Health, and that an old and tried Sanitarian, 
like Dr. Stephen Smith of New York, is watching 
the interests of American Medicine, I hesitate to 
raise my voice in opposition to measures, which, 
with the engrossing duties of a ousy life in prac- 
tice, it is impossible for me to study closely. 
Wehaveaiood opportunity, each year, of 
the action of the National Board of 
Health, at the meeting of the American Public 
He* Uir Association, and I hope we may have lead- 
Mi'/of courage to attack and denounce all measures 
c..$bulatod to hurt our Profession or our Coun 
But let us not keep up quasi—political 
agnations, calculated to interfere with the ma- 
turely considered projects of the National BoarcU l 
of Health. How can the Medical Profession ex- 
pect public support, in matters of hygiene, if con- 
tinued strife threatens to weaken the position of 
a Sanitary Council constituted by honorable 
members of that Piofession. This continued cry 
of wolf, when there is no wolf, can only end by 
making us look ridiculous. 
In conclusion, my dear Sir, 1 beg to assure you 
that any request, from the National Board of 
Health, to strengthen its position by such in- 
fluences however trivial, that I may use, will he 
treated with the greatest respect and anxious 
consideration. The interests of commerce and 
of the whole world are bound up in the great 
question which I, for one, am glad to see entrusted 
for action and deliberation to the National Board 
of Health. That our colleagues on that Board 
will not betray their trust, nor act rashly, is . 
universally acknowledged. I am in favor of an 
extension, and not limitation of their powers, 
and under the guidance of Hon. Isham G. Har- 
ris, State authority never can be lorgotten. 
I am Dear Sir, Yours Respectfully, 
ROBT. B. S. HARGIS, M. D.