St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-09-10
The Need of Closer Study of Localized
FeVers.

The study of the fever Which prevail
ed at Princeton has more than local
interest. Like the cases in Cairns Col
lege, Cambridge, we think they will
serve as an aid in the study of the
causes of disease. SO far rs the College
is concerned, it is evident that it is be-
ing placed on a more strict sanitary ba-
sis than are most of our institutions.
Indeed, all public institutions will do
well to initiate its example, without
the need of an epidemic of their own as
a prelude. The trustees were found to
he more radical than the Sanitary Com
mission. They ordered all indoor con-
veniences out of the college. All the
sinks, water-closets pipes, have been
removed, sewers and cess-pOOls disin-
fected and removed, and return been
made to an entire out-Of-dOO and sep
arate system. While we believe it pos
sible to have indoor arrangements en-
tirely safe from sewer-gas, yet in a
college of young men it is urged that
there is no need of exotic treatment.
After the sad experience of the last
term, it was perhaps due that not only
risk, but all suspicious of risk should
be removed.
But besides the local interests of the
college, this fever has great Importance
as an 2tilOgical study. 1t has long
been a question whether typhoid fever
ever originates spontaneously. While
smallpox is made worse by reason of
foul conditions, it is not believed that
any amount of concentrated foulness
ever originates case of smallpox.
There are many that take the same
view as to typhoid fever. 1t is thought
to be owing to a specific infective par
ticle. While favOring soil is required
for its growth into epidemic proper
tions, it is still claimed that the seed
must be furnished. In England, DR..
w. Budd and his followers believe that
the fever only arises from contagion,
and especially from the alvine dejec-
tions of the patient. DR.. MurchisOu on
the other hand, in his able treatise on
''The Continued Fevers of Great Bri-
tain,n claims that it arises from sewer
emanations. $50 far as we know" says
he, ''it is necessary for the production
of enteric fever that the matter under
going fermentation be either in con-
fined space, or drain or sewer, or that
In our country there is similar di-
versity of opinion. Austin Flint says
"Facts appear to show the spontaneous
generation of the causative agent in the
great majority of cases." Loomis, on
the other hand believes it always to
arise from antecedent cases or a diffu-
sion of the secretions therefrom, in the
air, in water or in milk. Prof Clark
holds to the view that there is a fever
allied to typhoid, but yet distinct from
the English typhoid, and deserving
to be called cesspOel fever. The Prince
ton cases are being studied carefully,
in order to obtain light on the question
of origin. 1t has been proven to the
satisfaction of the expert committee
that the fever originated in certain
house so much so that its cleansing
and alterations has been regarded as a
very important part of the sanitary
work. 1t was here that seven persons
first sickened, two of them not rooming
in the college, and one of them being a
maid-servant, whose case only recently
has been traced. A very plausible and
perhaps probable, origin can be made
out from antecedent cases elsewhere.
While this does not alter the fact that
cesspOols and sewers and wells gave
great invitation to an epidemic, it is OF
great interest as a fact in the tracing
of disease. The State Board of Health
Of New Jersey is diligently engaged in
the investigation, holding series of facts
in suspension until all the evidence can
be procured and sifted. There can be
no denbt that sewer and cesspool gas
| and that animal or organic constituents