National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-11-12
Mean annual death rate from september /, 1874,


to June 80 ISL
White 1877
U,6y
Total $3.50
Mean barometer for year, 0.07 inches mean tenn
perature, 032'; mean percentage of humidity
1905 total amounts of rainfall, 40 So inches. Again
we have been blessed with freedom from disease
Ill epidemic form, while some Of the cities around
us have been scourged with smallpox, diphtheria,
scarlet fever, &c. The following Is brief state
ment of
WORK PERFORMED
in the various branches Of the department. There
were 2O,OI1 nuisances reported and abated 310O2
pounds of meat 13,i91 bushels of fruit and vege-
tables; 1854 pounds of fish, aud 1916 bushels Of
oysters condemned as unfit for food examna-
tons and reports made OH 1888 citizens COM
plaints orders issued for burial at public expense
in 5OS cases; examinations made to ascertain local
cause OF disease in 12i cases. 1913 official letters
written 23il official notices issued 81 cases re-
ierred to the attorney for prosecution under tho
health ordinances; 1861 animals impounded; 2so5
dogs killed; 5957 dead animals 1860 tons of gar
bage, and l6S8l barrels of night soil removed; 100
deaths referred to the coroner for investigation;
4775 permits for burial issued, the regular monthly
reports compiled and sent out and the office work
condu cted." Referring to the subject of
WASHINGTON MALARIA,
he says: "In the Health Department probably
more so than in any other branch of the public SER
vice Of the District government, we are compelled
to delay the commentary portion of our report;
the tabular work requisite to in,elligenty illustrate
the statistics relating to births, marriages, and
deaths, and render them of some value to the
statistician, Is necessarily extensive and covers
some time after the expiration of the year. which
the report includes. During the time of prepara-
ton questions may arise in the public mind which
demand prompt consideration and which II may DO
well to answer or discuss promptly, AS the period
intervening between the date properly
1t is being prepared for the pub
lie hands was a period during which
more than ordinary interest centered upon us, I
think may be pardoned i'll enter into little ex-
PLANTATION, coupled with q comparison relative to
the healthfuncss of ours and other cities during
the past few historic weeks. Washington, its ins
and outs its uprising and its downsiting its every
auctuation and It's every change, is usually her.
aided to the world but the events of the memoir.
able months of.July, August, and September, 1881.
have made 1t during that time, more than ever, a
cynosure for all eyes and subject for every critic
We have been discussed latitude, longitude, me-
teorology, topography, and climate.
OUR ATMOSPHERE
has been descanted upon by many who were az
fully acquainted with their subject as they were
with the surface Of the earth surrounding tho
North Pole. Our sewerage and drainage has been
discussed pro and con by others Just as well in
formed. The mirror has been held up to an
imaginary Roman campagna or Backhole Of Call
cutta and Washington and the District of Column
bia pictured as the reflection. 1t would be useless,
of course, for me TO attempt description of tho
condition Of the public mind which influenced,
called for, or tolerated such senseess, unfounded
and yet startling vaporings as were heraded forth
regarding the sanitary condition of our cities A
prominent New York divine, influenced no doubt
by the daily press reports, spoke from his
pulpit in ominous tones of the pestllential atmos-
phere surrounding the abiding place OF our Chief
Magistrate Indeed l wonder that the atrocious
crime of July has not itself been charged up 10
the account of Washington malaria Malaria
has been fruitful theme. II has furnished
columns upon columns to the daily and weekly
press, giving work to numerous typos, startling
reading matter TO the general public, and has
oittmes proven very convenient shelter for tho
puzzled doctor l think that most of the ills
that human flesh is heir to- have at some time
found cover beneath Its seven letters. The at
tempted definitions Of the term malaria are
rather vague and unsatisfactory and the manner
in which 1t moves, aud the dire results which fol-
low, are equally strange and unaecountable-
Malaria is the cause of many ills In many forms
here in this Disrict-at least 1t is so accredited.
True, many the same conditions arising from
malaria here result from
In other sections of the country. When our La
mented President had been on his bed Of suffering
for several days, and his attendants earnest and
eager in his behalf, unmindml of themselves, had
been nights and days watching and waiting by his
side malaria stepped In and took hold OF them
one by one-somethng 1t had never done before.
One of our authorities, in attempting to define or
describe malaria, says II Is proved by the OK
perence of all ages that there is an intimate con-
nection between marshy districts and certain dis
eases, especially the various forms of ntermitten
and remittent fever but the exact nature of tho
noKious agent and the circumstances upon which
Its formation and extrication depend are even az
the present day not altogether established. II Ia
clearly neither heat nor moisture, for the crews oil
clean ships when cruising In the tropics AZ dis
lance from the land are usually healthy is 1t
any known gas exrlcated from the maIsh,
for the gases collected by stirring up
marshes (carbonlc acid nitrogen, oxygen, and car
burretted hydrogen) may be inspired without Civ
ing rise to any of the symptoms resembling those
produced by malaria. II may be regarded as an
established fact that the noxious agent Is pro-
duct of vegetable decomposition occurring under
certain conditions of heat md moisture Tho
certain conditions under which 1t takes hold Of
its victim arc as mysterious and unaccounlable as
those under which II is produced. Ii one of tho
Presidents attendants had been taken sick at Ell
boron It would probably have been from some
disease other than malaria; no other would nave
dared try TO usurp malarlas right at the White
House. Malaria has monopoly here. Dyspepsia has
been termed our national disease Malaria
may be said to have attained widespread repu-
tation as
OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL DISEASE.
Ifalnan stepped upon an orange peel upon one OF
our payements, aud, slipping down, sustained
fracture of some limb, there arc those who two
weeks later would go TO work to demonstrate o
you the effect of malaria as prime factor In that
mans case and condition, When al excuse ia
wanted for any abnormal condition Of the hu
system, malaria comes up us naturally as qulnhlc