Newspaper Page Text
Some Interesting Facts to
be Cqnsidered by Every
Household.
Dr. C. W. Reid, one of the
most prominent physician a )f thi
city, has called attention to a re¬
cent article on typhoid fever pub¬
lished in the Saturday Evening
Post. The article is specially
interesting and one that each
household could study with ad¬
vantage. Not being able to pub¬
lish the article in full, we print
the following excerpts:
Nowhere can the natural history
»f disease be more clearly seen or
more advantageously studied than
in the case of typhoid fever.
The cause of typhoid is simplicity
itself, merely drinking the excreta
»f some one else—“eating dirt,” in
the popular phrase—simple, but of a
deadly effectiveness, and disgrace¬
fully common. The demon may be
exorcised by an incantation of one
sentence: Keep human excreta out
of ilie drinking water. This sounds
simple, but it Isn’t. Eternal vigi¬
lance is the price of healtli as well as
li berty.
We can, however, make our pedi¬
gree of typhoid a little more precise.
It is not merely dirt of human origin
which is injurious, but dirt of a par¬
ticular type—namely, discharges
from a previous case of the disease.
Just as in the fight against malaria,
we . have not , the ,, enormous problem , ,
of the extermination of all and every
variety of mosquito, hut only of one
particular genus, and only the in¬
fected specimens of that, so in ty¬
phoid, the contamination of water or
food which we have to guard against
is that from previous cases. From
one point of view, this leaves the
problem as wide as ever, for, obvi¬
ously, the only way to insure against
poisoning of water by typhoid dis¬
charges is to shut out absolutely all
sewage contamination. On the oth¬
er hand, it is of immense advantage
in this regard—it enables us to fight
the e dem"tto'l i Teua r o f i Re" liffl
to turn his flank as well as crush his
centre.
while we are protecting our wafer
supplies against sewage we can, in
the mean time, render that sewage
comparatively harmless by thorough¬
ly disinfecting and sterilizing all
discharges from every known case of
the disease. A similar method is
used in the fight against yellow fever
and malaria. Not only are the
breeding places of the two mosquito
criminals broken up, but each known
case of the disease is carefully
screened, so as to prevent the insects
from becoming infected, and thus
able to transmit the disease to other
human victims.
it cannot be too emphatically in¬
sisted upon that every case of ty¬
phoid, like every case of yellow fever
and of malaria, comes from a previ¬
ous case. It is neither healthy nor
exhilarating to drink a clear solu¬
tion of sewage, no matter how dilute;
hut, as a matter of fact, it is astonish¬
ing how long communities may
drink sewage-laden water with com¬
parative impunity, so long as the
sewage contains no typhoid dischar¬
ges. One c se of typhoid imported
into a watershed will set a city in
blaze.
It was only in 1856 that the method
of transmission of the disease was
clearly recognized, and, in 1880,
Hie bacillus was discovered and iden¬
tified by the bacteriologist Ebertb
whose name it bears, so that it is
only within the last thirty years that
real weapons iiave been put into our
hands with which to begin a fight
extermination against the disease.
Great cities are developing
sort of a sanitary conscience. Farm
ers and country districts have as yet
little or none. Bad as our city often
is, and defective as oar system
sewage, they cannot for a
compare in deadliness with that
most unheavenly pair of twins,
shallow well and the vault privy,
more ingenious combination for
dissemination of typhoid than
precious couple could hardly
been devised. The innocent house
holder sallies foith, and, at an
propriate distance from his cot,
digs two holes, one about tb’rty feet
deep, the other about four. Into the
shallower one he throws his excreta,
while upon the surface of the ground
he flings his household waste from
the back stoop. The gentle rain
from heaven washes these various
products down into the soil and per¬
colates gradually into the deeper
hole. When the interesting solution
has accumulated to a sufficient depth
it is drawn up by the old oaken
bucket or a modern pump, and
drunk. Is it any wonder that in this
progressive and highly civilized
country thsee hundred and fifty
thousand cases of typhoid occur
every year, with a death penalty of
10 per cent? Counting half of these
as workers, and the period of illness
as two montes, which would be very
moderate estimates, give^a loss of
productive working time equivalent
to thirty thousand years. Talk of
“cheap as dirt” ! It is the most ex¬
pensive thing there is.
Typhoid still abundantly earns its
old name of “military fever,” and its
sinister victories in war are even
more renowned than its daily tri¬
umphs in peace. Strange as it may
seem, the deadliest enemy of the
soldier is not bullets, but bacilli, and
sewage is mightier than the sword.
For instance, in the Fran co-Prussian
War typhoid alone caused 60 per
cent, of all the deaths. In the Boer
War it caused nearly six thousand
deaths as compared -with seventy
five hundred from wounds in battle,
while other diseases caused five
thousand more.
Given the bacillus, how does it get
into the human system? Here the
evidence is so abundant and over
whelming , , . that , we may content our
selves , with . , bald . , . statements of facts.
Tile three great routes of this pesti
lence are water, milk and flies. Of
t(ie three, the first is far the most
common and important. While only
a rough statement is possible, proba¬
bly 80 per cent, of all cases from
water, 5 per cent, from milk, 5 per
cent, through flies and 5 per cent,
through other channels would fairly
represent the percentage.
That it is conveyed through water
is as certain as that the sun rises
and sets. The only embarrassment
in proving it lies in selecting from
I^ay.am ,„Tfajsie_ isJ
tile classic case of the Swiss villages
on opposite sides of the same moun¬
tain chain, the second of which drew
its water supply from a spring that
came through the mountain from a
brooklet running by the first village.
Typhoid fever broke out in the first
village, and twenty days later it ap¬
peared in the second village, twenty
miles away on"The other side of the
mountain. Colored particles thrown
into the brook on one side promptly
appeared in the spring upon the
other. Then there was the gruesome
modern instance of Plymouth, Penn
syvania, in 1885. A single case of
imported typhoid occurring on the
watershed of a reservoir was follow¬
ed, thirty days later, by an epidemic
of eleven hundred cases in a
tion of eight thousand.
Another instance is peculiarly in¬
teresting, as illustrating how typhoid
infection gets into milk, the second—
though at long interval—most fre¬
quent means of its spread. It does
not come from the cow, for, fortun¬
ately, none of the domestic animals,
with the possible exception of the
cat, is subject to typhoid. Nor is it
possible that cattle, drinking foul
and even infected water, can trans¬
mit the bacillus in their milk. That
superstition was exploded long ag<f.
Every epidemic of typhoid spread by
milk—and there are scores of them
now on record—can be traced to the
^ , „ _
from mild forms of typhoid, or en¬
gaged in waiting upon members of
the family who are ill of the disease,
or the dilution of milk with
water, or even, almost incredible
it may seem, to such slight
nation as washing the cans with
fected water.
The danger of transmission of
phoid througli milk has been
mously exaggerated, and, like
other milk-born diseases, is entirely
due to filthy handling, and may be
prevented by intelligent
policing. Even with our present
ceedingly imperfiet systems,
bly not more than between 5 and
per cent, of typhoid i» transmitted
this way; and, if the water
were disappear. kept clean, this would *
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Typhoid may not only be trans¬
mitted from “the earth beneath” and
“the waters under the earth,” but
also from “the heavens above,”
through the medium of flies and dust.
The first method is bulking larger
every day, especially in country dis¬
tricts and in camps. The modus
operandi is simplicity itself. The
fly lives and moves and has its being
in dirt. It breeds in dirt and it feeds
on food, and, as it never wipes its
feet, the interesting results can be
imagined. Just to dispel any possi¬
ble doubt., plates of galatine have
been exposed where flies could walk
on them, then placed in an incubator
and within forty-eight hours there
w4s a clearly Muw-ded track of the
footprints of the flies written in
clumps of bacilli sown by their
filthy feet. More definitely, flies
have been caught in the houses of
typhoid patients, put under the mi¬
croscope and their feet, stomachs
and specks found swarming with ty¬
phoid bacilli. A single fly-speck
may contain three thousand. For¬
tunately we iiave a simple and effect¬
ive remedy. We cannot disinfect
tlie fly, nor make him wipe his feet,
but we can exterminate him utterly!
This sounds difficult, but it isn’t.
Like the mosquito, the fly can only
breed in one particular kind of place,
and that place is a heap of dirt—
preferably horse manure, but, at a
ph, c h, dust-bins, garbage-cans,
sweepings : under porches or behind
furniture, vaults—anywhere that dirt
is allowed to remain undisturbed for
more than a week at a stretch.
Abolish, screen or poison these dirt
accumulations, and flies will disap¬
pear, and with them not merely
risks from typhoid, but half a dozen
other diseases, as well as all sorts of
filth and much discomfort and incon¬
venience. It was largely through
flies that the disgraceful epidemic of
typhoid, which ravaged our camps
on our own soil during the Spanish
American War, was spread.
The last method of transmission is
by direct contact with the sick. This
is a rare means of spread, so much
ir is generally stated that
phoid is not contagious; but it is
real source of danger and one
which precautions should by
means be taken. Tlie only
feour by the goiling of
hands of the nurse or other
ant. and then eating or
food, or putting the fingers into
mouth before thoroughly
If the hands be washed with a
antiseptic solution after waiting
on the patient, and the cheerful
sometimes indulged in of
fruit or other deiic.ioios into the
room for a day or so, in the
that they may tempt the appetite
! the and then tab ing
of patient,
j ■ d j u ]ie chiidren eat
j as a treat, be abolished, and
nurse be not allowed to officiate in
the kitchen, risk from this source;
will be done away with. Even with !
the utmost recklessness, it would net
cover more than one or two per cent,
of all cases.
Thomas County Shows
Decrease in Tax Returns
From the Meigs Review we
learn that Thomas county, which
for several years has been one of
the banner counties of the state
when it come to showing a hand¬
some increase, in tax returns, will
this year show a decrease of
$174,258 00. The Review says
that every district in the county,
save one, shows a decrease, the
Meigs district showing a smaller
decrease than any other. The
Glasgow district is the only one
that shows an increase, the in¬
crease in that district being
$7,866.00.
The cause is attributed to the
.financial depression which has
prevailed for the past six or
eight months, and the deprecia¬
tion in land values consequent
thereon.
It Can’t Be Beat.
The best of all teachers is experi¬
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North Carolina, says: “I find Elec¬
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for it. For Stomach, Liver and
Kidney troubles it can’t be beat.
I have tried it and find it a most ex¬
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right; it’s the best of all medicines
also for weakness, lame back, and all
run doAvn conditions. Best too for
chills and malaria. Sold under guar¬
antee at Hill & King’s drug store.
50c.
B, Y. P. U. Program
For August 2, 1908.
Topic—The Christian Race.
Leader—J. L. Hill.
Song 42.
Reading—J. E. Piekron, Heb.
12 : 1 - 2 .
Song 200 (Young People’s
Hymnal).
Quartett.
Paper—“Open sin has no place
in life of faith”—C. J. Hurst.
Paper—“The question of the
weights”—Mr 9 . Pearl B. Shipp.
Paper on patience, M. H. King.
Closing exercises.
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