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Island of Molokini. (Chart B.)
A small islet of the island of Maui, which see.
Communications of the Hawaiian Islands.
RAILROADS.
There are, according to the Statesman's Tear Book for 1893, 56 miles of railway in the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu. These roads were built principally for the transportation of products from the interior to the seaports.
RAILROADS OF OAHU.
Oahu Railroad. —This line extends from Honolulu, 19 miles, to Ewa plantation; passing around Pearl Lochs, with a branch along the peninsula to Pearl City, and a spur extending into a quarry at Palama. Roadbed good. It is proposed to run the railroad completely around the island.
Depots.—There is an excellent depot at Honolulu; also turntable. Stations, with suitable houses, at intervals along the line. A fine depot, also turntable, exists at Pearl City.
Wharfage.—The company's wharf at Honolulu is 60 feet wide and 200 feet long and is ample for present needs. Products can be unloaded directly from cars to vessels and vice versa.
Rolling stock, etc.—The rolling stock and equipments are of the most approved and modern style.
At the port of Waianae, in northwest portion of Oahu, there are several small railroads, in all about 4 or 5 miles, branching to plantations in the interior and along the coast. About these there are, however, no obtainable data.
RAILROADS OF HAWAII.
In Hawaii, from Mahukona to the Kohola district, some 15 miles of railroad exist.
RAILROADS OF MAUI.
In the island Maui a little railway of very narrow gauge now connects Wailuku and Kaluilui. The railway also extends 3 miles further eastward to the sugar mills of the great plantation of Sprecklesville, in all 13 miles.
(The distances between these places are given from the overland distance tables in the Hawaiian Annual for 1893.)
Data concerning gauge, quantity of rolling stock, etc., as well as reliable maps, are at present unobtainable.
RAILROADS OF KAUI.
On the island of Kaui there is (according to the Hydrographic Office chart of Waimea Bay) a railroad from "Waimea village to Kekaha. No details known.
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ROADS.
There are a few well-constructed roads on the Island of Oahu, leading from Honolulu to places of interest to tourists; but in general the roads on the island are not good, being frequently heavy with sand and muddy in wet districts. No positive information obtainable.
TELEGRAPHS.
There are telegraphs round the island of Oahu as well as in Hawaii and Maui. Oahu. and Hawaii are connected by telegraphic cable. Total length of telegraphs, 250 miles.
TELEPHONES.
Telephones are in general use in Honolulu and probably elsewhere on the islands.
POSTAL SERVICE.
For Hawaiian Islands postal service and post-offices.
INTER-ISLAND STEAMERS AND VESSELS.
There are 22 coasting steamers plying between the ports of the island, of which 9 belong the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, 7 to the Wilder Steamship Company, and the remainder to various private owners.
There are also 25 sailing vessels belonging to various firms and owners.
There are, besides, 2 steam and 6 sailing merchantmen and traders of Hawaiian register plying between the islands and foreign ports.
LEPROSY.
In his report to the Hawaiian legislative assembly of 1884, the president of the board of health makes the assertion that "Hawaii has to meet a calamity of widespread disease. ٭ ٭ At least 2 per cent of her entire native population is attacked by a fearful and supposed incurable malady [leprosy], of an exceptioual character, that demands separation and isolation." In the same report it is shown that the appropriation of $90,000, for the segregation and care of lepers, voted in 1882, for the biennial period closing March 31,1884, had fallen short of the demands upon the health authorities. The Hawaiian law has provided for the strict segregation of lepers since 1865, and the district of Kalawao on Molokai, a territory of about 5,000 acres, was selected at that time for the leper settlement.
It is asserted that up to 1882 at least, the law requiring segregation was not carried out with vigor, but it is shown that under the partial enforcement of the law during sixteen years prior to June 1, 1882, 2,602 cases, an average of 162.62 cases per year, had been sent to the
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leper settlement. The biennial report of the president of the board of health for 1890 states that "the work of collecting and segregating lepers had been carried on with firmness and impartiality, and that the number of lepers collected and sent to Molokai for the biennial period closing March 31, 1890, was 798. Of these 2 were of British and 2 were of American birth." The report shows that $331,057.80 was expended by the board of health during the biennial period, and it is asserted "that the maintenance of the leper establishment is the almost bottomless pit into which more than three-fourths of the money appropriated is cast."
It is hopefully claimed, however, "that its requirements are on the wane, and judging from the most reliable information obtainable there are but very few undoubted cases of leprosy now at large in the country, and they will come under the care of the board as rapidly as it is possible to get control of them." In proof of this it is stated that on the 31st of March, 1888, it was estimated that there were then at large throughout the Kingdom 644 lepers, while at the date of the report under consideration, March 31,1890, "according to the best information obtainable, there are ٭ ٭ ٭ about 100 persons supposed to be affected by the disease still at large who have not been before the examining board." The reasons why these suspected lepers have not been examined are stated to be that some very bad and unmistakable cases are hiding in fastnesses of the mountains, while some mild cases change their residence so often as to baffle the efforts of the officers of the law for their arrest.
In regard to the contagious character of the disease and the precautions necessary to be taken it is claimed by Surg. Tyron, 17. S. Navy,* that the spread of the disease in the Hawaiian Islands is due, or was due at that time, 1883, to the general belief that "the disease is only slightly contagious, and its treatment as such from the beginning, allowing free individual intercourse, with weak enforcement of the laws for its suppression."
That leprosy has not always been regarded by the authorities of the Hawaiian Islands as eminently contagious is shown by the following extracts from the report of the president of the board of health to the legislative assembly of 1884. He says: "Such a characterization is entirely uncalled for, is not warranted by experienced medical opinion, and the violent and hasty segregation which it would inspire is a wrong to a suffering community." "The confirmed leper should be separated from the community, but there should be no alarm in consequence of the temporary presence in the street of a leper, or on account of any ordinary intercourse with a sufferer from the disease."
On the other hand the report of the board of health for 1890 declares in the most emphatic manner that " complete, thorough, and absolute segregation offers the only safeguard" against the ravages of leprosy. The same report asserts that if, from the time when leprosy was first recognized as an established fact in the islands, the policy of absolute segregation had been firmly decided upon and unflinchingly pursued, ٭ ٭ ٭ Hawaii would be as free from leprosy to-day as any civilized nation." The report concludes with the hopeful words: "It is safe to say that if we do not relax our efforts we have seen the worst of leprosy in this country." The average leper population of the leper settlements in Molokai for the two years ending March 31, 1890, was 1,035.
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*American Journal Medical Science, April, 1883.
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A. Lutz, M. D., a specialist employed by the Hawaiian Government as "government physician for the study and treatment of leprosy," reports, under date of April 1,1890, as follows: "The infection from one person to the other furnishes probably the largest number of patients; heredity, if it really exists at all, is quite secondary, being perhaps only simulated by family infection. The influence of vaccination appears most doubtful."
From the Sanitary Instructions for Hawaiians, by the chairman of the sanitary committee of the Hawaiian legislature, the following statement of predisposing causes of leprosy and rules to be observed is made up:
"Be careful that where the operation of vaccination is performed pure vaccine is used."
"Avoid a leprous bedfellow as you would a pit of fire."
"Eat regularly and of the best obtainable food."
"Avoid dark, damp, badly-ventilated rooms."
"Never lie down to repose in damp or dirty clothing, and keep the body clean."
"Nearly all the lepers come from among the poor, who have fared badly and have lodged in damp and ill ventilated huts."
"Take care of the first symptoms of leprosy. The moment numbness of feeling, or any marks or swellings that indicate leprosy are observed, a physician should be consulted."
Venereal diseases favor the attack of leprosy. "If two men, one perfectly well and clean in body and the other diseased with venereal virus, were each brought into intimate contact with a leprous individual, the diseased man would be affected and become a leper far sooner than the sound man."
Dr. Lutz, Hawaiian Government physician for the treatment and study of leprosy, was encouraged to declare, under date of April, 1890, that he believes "we shall ٭ ٭ ٭ see cures, which may be attributed, not to extraordinary chance, but to our methods of treatment." It appears, however, from later reports, that the study of leprosy by specialists employed by the Government was soon abandoned. Dr. Lutz resigned September, 1890, without having effected a permanent cure.
The president of the board of health reports to the legislative assembly, session of 1892, on the subject of the study of leprosy by Government specialists, as follows: "In deference to the oft-repeated requests, ٭ ٭ ٭ the board of health opened correspondence with the leprosy commission of England and with Dr. E. Arning, of Hamburg, Germany, with a view of ٭ ٭ ٭ continuing the study and treatment of leprosy." The substance of Dr. Arning's reply is: "That the scientific work connected with the etiology and pathology of leprosy can, with surer prospects of success, be carried on here in its European centers, and this is actually being done; there are a number of bacteriologists ٭ ٭ ٭ at work on this intricate question and slowly unraveling knot on knot towards its solution."
The report of the board of health for 1892 states that on "December 31,1890, there were 1,213 lepers in the custody of the board, that being the highest number ever reached, and on March 31, 1892, there were only 1,115, a decrease of 98 during the period." In regard to the segregation of lepers the report affirms that at this date, March 31, 1892, "there are very few known lepers at large, with the exception of perhaps 17 at Kalalau, Kaui, but there are about 60 suspects at liberty in
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Honolulu, and some in the outer districts, and more or less of them will, in time, become confirmed cases."
The same report shows that the cost of the "segregation, support, and treatment of lepers" for the biennial period closing March 31, 1892, was $224,331.88.
In regard to venereal diseases, so well known as prevalent in the Hawaiian Islands, the statement is made in the Medical Record for April, 1889, that the "effects of hereditary immunity ٭ ٭ ٭ has resulted in the production of a much milder form of the disease in the course of three or four generations. At the present day syphilis in the Sandwich Islands is comparatively a benign disease, and furnishes but a small contingent to the sum of mortality." The writer, Dr. P. A. Morrow, states that "not only has the disease moderated in severity, but, according to the testimony of numerous physicians, ٭ ٭ ٭ it has materially decreased in frequency." The writer also asserts the "comparative rarity of hereditary transmission" of syphilis in the islands, and explains it by the fact that the native Hawaiians of to-day are a sterile race. " In some of the districts the percentage of births does not exceed 2 per 1,000 instead of 2S per 1,000, as it should be, to balance the mortality rate."
Note.—The maps and charts mentioned in this paper omitted.
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VII. Also the following lecture, delivered at the u. s. national museum, february 9, and march 15, 1884, by capt. c. e. dutton, of the u.s. army in washington, d.c.
[Ordnance notes—No. 343, Washington, April 23, 1884.]
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS AND PEOPLE.
Lectures delivered at the U.S. National Museum February 9 and March 15,1884, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and of the Anthropological and Biological Societies of Washington.
[By Capt. C. E. Dutton, Ordnance Department, U. S. A., on U. S. Geological duty.]
Ladies and Gentleman: The Hawaiian Islands are the summits of a gigantic submarine mountain range. If the waters of the Pacific were removed from their vicinity we might behold a range of mountains as long as our Appalachian system, from Lake Champlain to Chattanooga, and quite as wide, with summits five times as high as Mount Washington. The summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are nearly 14,000 feet above the ocean, and their bases are from 15,000 to 18,000 feet beneath it. Referred to the bottom of the ocean these mountains are higher than the Himalayas. Standing upon the northeastern coast of Hawaii the crest of Mauna Kea is less than 20 miles away, and is nearly 3 miles above us. At a distance of 30 miles at sea the ocean floor is about 31/2 miles below us. I am not aware of any other place in the world where, along a line less than 50 miles in length, may be found a difference in altitude of more than 6 miles.
The Hawaiian group consists of four larger and four smaller islands. The largest island is named Hawaii. It has a length of about 90 and a width of 70 miles. Its area is nearly 4,000 square miles, being a little less than two-thirds of the area of the entire group. It is not, however, the most populous, for that distinction belongs to the islands of Oahu, on which is situated the principal town and capital, Honolulu, which is the center of trade and the seat of the Government.
Only a small portion of each island is capable of sustaining a dense population. The interiors are mountainous and generally rough, craggy, and cut with profound gorges of the wildest description. The habitable portions are near the seacoast, forming a ring around each island; but only a part of each ring is habitable or cultivable. Some portions are arid and barren; others are covered with recent floods of lava, and still others are bounded by lofty rocky coasts, and trenched with ravines so deep and abrupt that access is difficult. Generally speaking, the proportion of habitable area is singularly small. But those portions which are well favored are probably capable of sustaining as dense a population as any tracts in the world.
The climate of these islands is the climate of Paradise. It is never hot, and, except at considerable altitudes, it is never cold. Rarely has the thermometer been known to reach 90° on the seacoast, or to fall below 65°. The temperature in most localities may be averaged the year round as varying between 75° and 85°. But while the temperature of any given locality is uniform, there is wonderful variety in the climate as we pass from one place to another. Indeed, there are almost as many climates as there are square leagues. As a rule the windward or eastern sides are rainy and the leeward sides dry. On the eastern coast of Hawaii the annual rainfall varies from 150 to 250 inches. On the northwest coast of the same island it is probably less than the
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