The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-06-07
mississippi state Board OF Health
lOIRouLAR. |

CIRCULAR.
At the last meeting of The State Board o
Health, held at Aberdeen on the 9th day o
April. il was declared by resolution, tina
the undersigned should prepare circular
to be issued to tho different sanitary bodies
and the municipal authorities throughout
the State.
The recent epidemic, with all of its hor
rors, must be fresh in the minds of us ALL
and it ought to suggest, with special EN-
itary measures as shall greatly diminish, il
not wholly exempt, us from the scourge OF
epidemcs.
We can safely start with the postulatt
that. q normal atmosphere Is the most ia
vorable condition for man in health and
disease. How often does the safety of the
patient depend upon it? Our therapeutics
frequently provo painful failures until we
| send them to some favored locality, where
tho lungs may be fed upon this blood-puri.
flying gas, until tho blood corpuscles shall
be restored to their wonted number and
vital integrity.
No santarian will question that filth,
with all its chemistry for evil not only gives
rise to many forms of disease, which often
grow into the magnitude of epidemics, but
that it dangerously affects all other diseases,
produced by mdterieS m0r6i, distinct and
different
1t stands to-day a we'll attested fact, that
foul air diseases are preventable, and pre-
vented when proper hygienic requirements
have been enforced.
With the encouragement and experience
of tho past, are we not compelled to the
conclusion, that it is a matter of supreme
importance to give careful attention to the
removal of any and all causes about us
that will produce miasmatic and infectious
exhalations
Many foc of these gaseous poisons may
be found in cities and towns--in the i'll
constructed sewers, basins of stagnant
water, surface water, privies, barn yards,
etc. Sewer gas is considered far more dan
gerous to public health than any Of the
causes that usually surround us, for in adj
dition to tho dead products of fermentation,
we have in sewer gas, germs of minute fun
gold animals aud plants, which, when find
ing suitable indus, have an immense pow
or of self-production.
Diphtheria, scarlatina and the worst
forms of our low grades of fevers are the
product of the silent and hidden laboratory
of these sewers.
These prolific sources of disease have
been so much neglected in our sanitary
work, that l have thought it proper to di-
rect special attention to these tunl.els for
the discharge of water and filth.
We trust that the County and Municipal
Boards of Health may be profoundly i'm
pressed with the importa nee of at once
making proper survey Of their respective
districts and localities to discover any and
all causes dangerous to public health, have
the same abated, and all suspected places
thoroughly d1sinfected to destroy germs and
miasms. II is at this point that disinfect-
ants can be used with most reliance, to
abort disease and their spread into epidem-
les. To preserve health and life is one of
the highest employment that can engage
our attention, and we rs the ministers of
public health, should contribute our best
endeavors to secure these wise and benif-
cent ends. The we'll directed efforts of the
Health Service OF Great Britain has 80 inn
proved the sanitary condition, and conse>
quently the physical condition of her popu-
lation, as to have diminished her death rate
one-third in comparatively few years.
Then do not let us temporize, and disre-
gard our obligations until some tempest of
death comes to remind us of our wilful in
sufficiency. We shall then be called again
to witness that our improvised efforts, and
the use OF disil.fectants will prove poor if
not fatal dependence to arrest the destroy
er. Disinfectants cannot be used in sniff
cient quantity without becoming q source
of danger) upon the eruption of any fatal
epidemic, to neutralize the life-destroying
germs aud gasses arising from city sntu-
rated with filth.
Then let ua 'put our house in Or
der" and accept the helpful sugges-
tions of experience, that tho bane and |
pain of all our ills are greatly mitigated by |
the renewing influence of pure atmos>
phere. Cleanliness is the brightest tempo.
raj ornament to any people, for it means |
health and prosperity with all their multi
piled blessings.
We are disappointed that SO many coun-
ties have failed to organize Boards of |
Health. We had hoped that all measures
instituted for the conseryancy of the health |
OF our citizens would command the atten-
ton of The leading electors of each and
every county in the State. We must aei-
tate this public health question until we
shall have evoked such q sentiment in the
public mind MS shall demand q sanitary as
well as civil administration.
We again renew our desire to have the
cordial cooperation of the County and MI
nicipal Health Boards in the State, that
we may mutually aid each other in the re-
5ponsble duties we have assumed in fur
Lherance Of public hygiene.
May we not fairly hope to be saved from
the pestilonce that walketh IN darkness.
md the destruction that wasteth at noon
lay, if We intelligently obey the laws that
anitary science points out to us, and there.
~ secure such measure of cleanliness as
viii renew its own reward.
ROBERT KELLs, NJ. D.,
Chairman