Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-14


Health Of1eer TcwRstenG yesterday subnitte.
to the Commissioners Ills annual report, ccver1n:,
the operations OF the health department for the
yesr ending June So 1871. The document cover
100 pages OF closciy written manuscript The
health officer says 'saat cur showing IS 10 heslti
fitness is even better than that OF last year
Seventy-one less dea tbs occurred during tbs Yea
ended June 50 1851, than during the year proceed
Ing. The total n,Sater o: deaths was Also, O.
which number 2so6 were OF white persons ane
,e3l OF colored persons, showing death rate @
1918 per COO per annum for the white, 81. % IL
the colored and - 60 for the total populatun. q
the decedents Gas were children under I've year,
OF age, bile 1c1 were persons sixty years OF age o.
over. There were 1896 births, SIP marriages an
36S still births reported"
on The SUBJECT OF MALARIkL DISEASES
he says:-"When an excuse is wanted for any oh
norllal condition OF the human SYSTEM malaria
comes up as naturally as qunine is taken down
1t has reall- become fashionable. No one thinks
OF suffering from anything other than malaria
Now, 1t is not my intention or desire TO attempt
a denial that the conditions attendant upon what
Is supposed To be malariouS atmosphere exists L
OF Columbia, but what I do want 10 assert and
proclaim is the fact that that prominence and SEN
Sational coloring given TO everything coming from
PERIOD has given undue prominence 10 this aues-
ton OF Washington malaria and done gross In
Justice to the healthulnesS OF cur climate. II Is
generally accepted as fact that the malaria,
which does exist In our cities arises from the flats
or marshes on our river 'front.' and think al as'e
persuaded OF the necessity rhfcR demands
action looking to the eradication or this
erN nom midst. At the same time We
Know fun well, IN the light OF present knowledge
that what are known as the malaral diseases de
pend not alone upon the miasma from marshes,
Tor their origin. They are found to exist in loce-
IONS lar removed from any such influence. Filthy
streets aad foul cutters in city; the Slturatcn OF
the soil about dwellings; the foul air from damp.
unVenulated cellars; the accumulated Nth from
domestic animals; the defective drainage OF
houSeS-to all these sources have been traced the
responsibility for just such an effect uDon the
human system as is accredited to the malaria or
the marshes Zymotic diseases are thosr which
an impure air. They might be termed filth dis
eases. Filth OF some kind, whether 1t be the de-
cayed vegetable matter on marsh. the decayed
cabbage in a country cellar, or the decaying re-
mains OF a domestic animal on city street. either
render the air impure, and the Impurities taken
into the lungs, poison the blood and produce dis
ease. Now, the principal diseases attendant upon
the breathing Of an air rendered impure from any
OF the causes named are diarrhHGl diseases, ty-
phOd fever malara fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria
and small poy. Below is given list of fourteen OF
our prominent cities with compare tive statement
showing tie deaths occurring In each from the dis
eases above referred to, the percentage OF the same
TO the total DEATHS ana the annual death rate
tnerefroln, for the very period when such howl
was made about Washington malaria" VIZ: From
the middle OF June to the middle OF September,
1881. The figures are those given by the authori-
ties OF the cities named, and are assumed 10 he
correct:
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING DEATHS FROM
NAMED DURING THE - WEEKS ENDING sEPTEM-
Der Z, 1881.