Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-07-03
Death In the Barn.Yard.

Careless and neglectful farmers per.
nit the accumulations of animal excre.
ment, decaying straw, chaff and hay to
lie and rot all summer in close proximity
to the dwelling, whence bad odors are
waited into every room, and the INN ates
breathe the foul and pestilential odors
night and day, all through the year. In
hot weather windows must be kept shut
to keep out these sickeniDg and deathly
barn-yard smells. Finally, one of the
members has an attack of typhus fever
The doctor is sent for and prescribes-
whats-a lot of poisonous drugs! The
patient dies and another one sickens in
the same way and goes through the same
then another, and that stricken family is
left without mother, daughter, or the
younger children that made it happy.
Those away at school or at work away
from the house escape with their lives
Here is case of the most palpable cause
and effect, and yet it was not seen till
death had thinned the ranks of that
family.
In pleasant town in Massachusetts,
there was young ladies' seminary. The
reputation of the place and the fame of
the teachers drew large number of
blooming girls there to be educated and
trained to the accomplishments and duties
OF life. High hopes animated all-par-
ents, principals, teachers and pupils. But
ere long pale death made his appearance
and claimed victim. Then another and
another, until panic ragged in the institu-
tion at beautiful Maplewood," and all
who could do so hastened to their homes !;
sonfe to die in their own family circle,
others, with more constitution, to recover
slowly and thank God for their escape
But what was the cause of this epidemic?
Was it the water? No. Was it the food?
No. Overstuay9 No. Well, was it In
malarious region of country? No; for it
was in the charming town of Litchfield,
an education al center, from which have
come some of the brightest intellectual
lights of the age. 1t is a healthy place.
Then what was the cause ofthis epidemic
at the young ladies' seminary? We
answer, it was a filthy barn yardw
The institute stood near by and little
east of an uncleaned barn-yard, whence
the sickening odors were waited through
the house, and those young creatures
breathed the death. giving fumes, all un-
conscious of its fatal effects, till one after
another Tell before the destroyer. That
school failed. Then the wise ones began
TO cast about to ascertain the cause OF
their misfortune. Having cleaned out
the sinking burnyard there was no more
trouble
Last summer, when the weather was hot,
cattle dealers were transporting a cargo
from Texas north, when the boat struck a
snag in the Red River and sank Just above
Shreveport, in Louisiana. The drowned
cattle were hauled on shore, their hides
taken of, and their caTcasses left to de.
cay on the bank or tumbled into the river
The foul stencil which supeTvened soon
rendered life in Shreveport intolerable.
Air and water were polluted. The tester.
ing stencil filled the air for miles around.
A few weeks later the telegraph announced
the scourge of yellow feverto be raging IN
that town. 1t soon spread to other places,
where the sanitary, or rather where the
want OF sanitary, conditions gave the dis
case foothold, and it peeled several ol
the Southern cities, among others Nash
vile and Memphis, Tenn.
In the above it will be seen that we
trace cause and effect in all these cases
But we have cited only three or four con.
spicuOus cases with which the public is
familiar. But we do this to call attention
to every mans barn-yard, pig-pen, privy,
door-yard, heu-house, compost-heap, OF
any other dead and decaying rubbish
which fills the air with impurities. Nei
ther doctors nor drugs can counteract the
disease.generating effects of these things
1t is not enough that we bathe and
keep the person clean and free from bad
odors; we must keep all our surround
ings clean, so that the air we breathe, the
water we drink, and the food we eat
shall all be pure. Neat and tidy farmers
will clean out their stables and theil
barn-yards, pigpens, and door.yards
clean out their cellars and their wells
cisterns and springs, and make all sweet
clean and healthful. This is the way tC
preserve health, prolong life, and save
doctors bills. This is hygiene,-Soienct
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