St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-06-06

large crack under the partition that
separates the shed and entry part from
the school room. The house is now
banked up on all sides, the dirt averag-
ing one foot above the sllls, with no
sort of ventilation under house except
quite a large crack in the floor. The
dirt with which the house is banked
was shovelled up close around the
house, and the pits out of which it was
dug are now partially filled with most
filthy water. The school house was
"washedn after a fashion, some days
before commencement of school, and
then tightly closed until school opened.
The privy is most conveniently sltuat-
ed, standing about twelve feet from the
| front door of the house. 1t is we'll ven
tilated, however, as it stands on blocks
so high, that the citizens can thorough
ly inspect it every time they go past,
and see for themselves whether 1t is
clogged, either above or beneath the
floor. The farmers usually draw load
away from it every spring, but have
not done so this year. 1t looks as
though it might be guilty of much mis-
chief, past and present. Running along
side the road and just in the rear of the
house is a small brook, now large
enough to fill spout one foot wide and
four inches deep. A few rods above
the house, a road crosses the brook and
runs up a steep hill about fifteen rods
to the farm buildings of j. ID. Cheney.
Near the bridge the children have been
accustomed to get water for drinking
purposes, and it was surmised at once
that there was poison in the water. In
vestigation shows, that if not poisoned,
the water was at the time it was drank
not wholesome or clean. Mr.. Cheney's
barns are built in a sag in the side hill
that at this season of the year is wet,
the water now working out under and
below them in quantities sufficient to
be visible almost to the brook, five
hundred feet away. In the ditch beside
the road leading up the hill past the
barns, Il small stream of water is now
running that is quite red, either from
oozing through the manure, or from
ochre or other mineral substance. This
water reached the brook above the
bridge. There is nothing about the
barns or house of Mr.. Cheney that
shows any signs of slovenliness. In the
barn yard, however, water is standing
in the low place in the middle into
which large quantity of muck has
been drawn. 1t is possible that this
water is slowly making its way into the
streams that Iun out from under and
below the barns. Another small stream
of water makes across the road in wet
times and falls into the brook just
above the bridge. So much for the
bad water that finds its way into the
brook.
Another source of supposed cOntami-
nation of the water, is the carcass of a
horse that died one year ago last winter
and was buried, unbeknown to the
owner, three rods above the bridge,
on a level with the brook bed, and only
ten feet from it. The carcass was re-
moved a year ago to a knoll forty or
fifty feet from the brock, where it now
lies partly exbumed, by parties who
have been trying to discover the cause
of the disease, which has been called
poisoning. The corruption is not yet
fully absorbed by the earth, and it is
possible that during the melting of the
snow, some poisonous matter found its
way into the brook it may still be
working out through the low ground
where the horse was originally buried.
Another poison theory, perhaps the
most absurd, is that Paris green may
have washed from the hillside, sixty or
eighty rods distant and been borne
along in the water. The nature of that
poison and the contagious character so
far across the land, are sufficient to
disprove this theory. The last, and as
one physician thinks, the most prOba-
BILE cause of the breaking out of diph-
liberia in the school, is the fact that the
children of one family, noted for the
terribly unsanitary conditions of their
house and persons, attended school in
the filthy clothing that they wore. while
getting up from the diphtheria, which
they had a short time since. 1t is
thought that they may have brought
the disease in their clothing to the
school house, and hence its spread. If
the above reasons are not sufficient to
account for sickness and death in this
afflicted community others might be
suggested. The misfortune has been
the result OF ignorance, OF willful neg
llgence In taking even ordinary meas
ures toward preventing this disease, or
some other disease, attacking the COM
munlty. A condition of affairs about
the school house and the brook, that
has created or invited disease, unclean-
ly homes, carelessness in regard to the
further spread of the disease, and the
pecullarltlesrof the location may each
have had something to do with the
sickness. This is not the only place in
Vermont where like causes are liable
to produce the same results, and the
lesson ought to be needed by making
everybody more careful in regard to
the sanitary conditions which prevent
disease. With all our fresh air, pure
water, cheap soap, and cheap labor,
there is no excuse for a misfortune as
terrible as this one
The authorities of Newark ought to
take means at once, to prevent the fur
ther spread of this disease, and to put
every house where it has occurred in
cleanly state. The water of the brook. |
which has borne the chief blame for
the sickness, has been sent away to be
analysed, and it will soon be learned
the sickness resulted from it
or not. The sick, twenty or more, are
now mostly out of danger.
Pollution of Streams.
The ST Alhans 1foooonoe, hos hoo,