Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-10-14
DIPHTHERIA.

L
formerly practitioner in this county.
is OF such general interest that we give
place to it in these columns:
| Diphtheria may arise in every con-
ceivable form and variety of location,
soil, climate and sanitary condition. It
may occur in elevated. dry, sandy, rocky
or mountainous districts, equally fatal
with epidemics in low, moist. swampy,
miasmatic, or alluvial districts It in
yades the most filthy apartments, and
the most cleanly in the midst of the
most perfect sanitary surroundings SO
far as discoyerable by our imperfect
tests. No case of the disease ever arose
unless contracted by the contagion from
another patient, without some general
or local cause, usually local and discov-
erable.
| Diphtheria is supposed to have origi-
mated in Egypt over two thousand years
ago, and to the peculiar conformation of
the country with the annual flooding of
the Nile, and the decaying animal and
vegetable matter, and imprudence of the
people. in an almost torid sun, is attrib.
uted the original source of the disease.
Its succeeding march into Asia, Europe
and America can with great precision
be traced in the wake of filth, pollution
or intemperance. giving rise to miasm
IN some instances of great malignancy.
What is miasm ? 1t is now used more
definitely for any emanation, either from
the bodies of the sick or from animal
and vegetable substances, or from the
earth, especially in marshy districts,
capable of causing disease in many of
those who are exposed to its action. 10
particularize the sources of miasm may
not be amiss in this report. Among
them the most frequent are personal
filth, dirty, damp apartments, imperfect
sink-drains, privies, filthy water, pig
sites, heneries and piles of decomposing
animal and vegetable matter and emana-
tlons from the sick, the breath, expecto-
ration, false membranes and excretions.
| A foul sink-drain, imperfect sewer,
or cellar drain obstructed with dead rats
Or decomposing vegetables, may flood a
house with the most malignant pesti-
lence. Wooden floors in cellars are al
ways dangerous. not only from their de-
composition, but by covering mass Of
eln ssuu uCvvUPysauS auinIaI dHu veg
etable matter. A damp, dark, unventi-
lated musty cellar, or one containing
decaying potatoes. apples, cabbage. and
squash, and decomposing meats. and
musty meat barrels, is fearful source
of miasm. Many time have inquired
into the condition of the cellar where
disease was rife, and been assured BY
the tidy housewife that it was perfect
and obtaining permission to 60 into it
found the above picture not overdrawn
this is alike true of the farmer, villagel
and denizen of the city, illustrating how
falsely our senses are educated, in think
ing that the closed and carefully busted
parlor, and preternaturally scrubbed
floor, are the essentials of neatness, or
chance cobweb, or the children Glitter
of few hours play. will outrank i
:, Nervousness defective drain, badl
= conducted privy, sour swamp or kitch
en- cesspool.
= Privies and imperfectly constructe
water-closets, are more prolific sourc
. of miasm than is generally recognized
u Many one has no means Of ventills
's tion, and some vaults are not emptie
y in generation.
: Underground sinks for the discharG
g g of soil pipes, and other kinds of sewae
u may be fearful in their results. givir
r. rise to miasm producing the most putrl
u forms of disease. 1t is well establish
= ed fact that we not only have watt
y percolating into the earth from a
| sources of surface water, but it Is equa
ly fact that we have subterranean W
ter streams of various sizes in gre
! profusion meandering through the cart
following the s'dip or tilted strata"
! 1t may not be pleasant to know th
= the subterranean stream supplying 20
- :, we'll prof. James d. Dana says all We
40 and spring are tappings Of these subtt
- ranean waters) may be receiving cont
a. buttons of surface water from 20
's neighbor's privy cesspool, sink-drain.
az back door, where all kinds of slo]
~ garbage and excrement are thrown ye
~ after year, and allowed to ferment a
. seeth in a July and August sun, giyi
rise to miasmatic air that dcvastates
III household with diphtheria or some otl
VI putrid disease and miasmatic pois
'u0 that sinks into the earth with the wat
'ns to be transported by those hidden strea
nos messengers of death) to your we'll,
-, :, the far away households with fault
. sanitary surroundings. still this is
ost frequently the case.
oc- Some of the most fatal epidemics
MT typhoid fever that ever visited Engla
sph were traced to milk, the poison hay
OPP been conveyed in it to the nonsuspect