‘Healing stone’ a menace to public, Wahiawa folks say; Board of Health differs

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

Little, if any, danger in situation, Dr.  Trotter, board president, says

——

Religious orders might be sufferers were action taken, opinion expressed

——

Notwithstanding protests by responsible citizens of the district, including a government physician, the territorial board of health will take no action — at least not for the present — regarding the so-called "healing stone" at Wahiawa.

"We are going to do nothing, as the minutes of the last meeting show," Dr. Frederick E. Trotter, president, said today.

Dr. Trotter expressed the opinion that there was very little, if any, danger of contagion as a result of persons coming into physical contact with the stone. He said the stone was exposed to the sun and rain, and he had been informed that it was disinfected twice a day.

While some local physicians are inclined to agree with Dr. Trotter, others state they believe the stone to be a menace to the public health, and that it should be either removed or so fenced that persons cannot come into contact with it.

His Own Children

Asked whether he would permit his own children to touch the "healing stone," Dr. Trotter replied:

"Certainly not. I’ve got a little sense, I hope."

Dr. Trotter today ordered two investigations as the result of information furnished him regarding purported practises at the stone. The first, was the statement of a Hawaiian woman at Wahiawa who says she saw a Japanese woman whom she believed to be a leper rubbing the stone. The second was a report that parents of pupils in a local public school had taken their children to Wahiawa so that they might rub freshly vaccinated arms on the stone.

According to Dr. Trotter, there is probably no more danger in coming into contact with the stone than there is in handling paper money or coin.

Dr. Trotter added that he thought existing fervor with regard to the purported "healing" properties of the stone would die out very soon.