Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-25
OUR DANGER.
THE DEATH THAT LURKs IN OUR
HOUSES.

THE DEATH THAT LURkS IN DUB
HOUSES.
Soma Startling Statements aud Some
Useful Information about De-
feclive Drainage
At the Academy of Medicine in New
York recently some startling statements
were made that will apply, at least in de-
gree, to all places We make extracts
from the New York Herald's report for the
benefit of RECORD UNION readers
PROFESSOR BAKER SAID:
There is not a physician in this city en-
gagged in active practice who Is not fre-
quently called upon to see disease of vari-
Gus degrees of severity, often resulting IN
death, which has been caused by poison.
II we can see our patients early enough we
can successfully meet such poisons as ar
senic, corrosive subiimate, aconite, and all
Others of this class, because we have anti
dotes which will prevent their effects.
But where the poison is introduced into
the system so insidiously that the subject
is unconscious of its absorption until its
effects are produced. then it is not ques-
| ton of antidotes, but the problem is, How
shall we counterfeit its consequences, and
how shall we keep our patients alive until
the Understanding agents have ceased to
! put in jeopardy the vital powers?
The special poisons to which now refer
are the gases, resulting from defective
plumbing, to which all classes-the poor
occupants of tenement houses, those who
are able to command the necessaries and
many of the luxuries of life, and those who
live in the most expensive houses and whose
riches can buy everything but health-are
alike exposed. None but physicians can
know how general this poison is and how
positively it explains much of the disease
that they are called upon to treat and of
the many sad deaths which follow. When
I assert that it is daily experience with
me to see persons whose general health is
Suffering from this poison, as manifested by
malaria,
LOSS OF APPETITE AND STRENGTH,
Slight febrile symptoms, diarrhea, physical
and mental depression, and that | have
seen infants, children and adults suffering
from diphtheria scarlet fever of a mild type
complicated with this disease and destroy
ing life; those in vigorous life, students in
colleges, ambitious and active young men
in the professions or in the commercial or
financial world stricken down by typhoid
fever, some struggling through the disease
and others dying, and that the cause of
this disease has been demonstrated to be
this poison, only state facts which are
common in the experience of all physicians
in this city.
DEATH IN THE HOUSE.
In some cases this has been the result of
ignorance of the very sanitary conditions
which environed them. For example, two
young men were stricken down with ty
phoid fever, one of whom died. They were
not acquaintance. but occupied offices in
the same building, in the vicinity of Wall
street. On investigation it was found that
there was not trap in the whole building
In house in which but few months be-
fore several hundred dollars had been ex-
pended to put the plumbing in perfect con-
dition, a young man died of typhoid fever
Others of the family became i'll, when it
was found that defective waste pipe was
saturating the house with poisonous gas.
But such facts as these are so common and
so well known to the profession that need
not dwell upon them.
DANGERS LURKING IN SEASIDE RESORTS
1t is the custom of many to take their
families for health and pleasure to various
summer resorts-at the seaside, the noun
tains and other attractive country hotels
but every year for some time past some of
these places have proved fatal to health
and often to life by typhoid fever, SO that
now it seems to be the plain duty OF every
physician to warn such families as hold
him responsible for their health of the
danger every such resort as does not give
them the evidence of competent sanitary
expert that their house is safe from all such
| dangers. None but physicians are alive to
the fact that many of those now living in
beautiful and expensive houses are like the
inhabitants who dwell at the base of Mount
Vesuvius, in soft, balmy, voluptuous at
mosphere, surrounded by vineyards and
gardens, luxuriant with the olive and the
fig and the orange trees, which mask and
hide the danger and desolation of the lava
and ashes of disease. 1t is absurd to
suppose that those who find pleasure in
expanding many thousands in buying works
of art to embellish their homes will not
gladly expend the insignificant sum neces-
sary to make their homes healthy for their
families and themselves. The physician
should never be an alarmist-he never can
hoist the signal of danger except when he
sees the forewarning signs of an impending
storm. Unfortunately, he can never see
the danger from this poison until its effects
are already beginning to develop as shown
by disease.
AN ENGINEERS VIEWS.
Charles f. Wingate, the Sanitary En-
gineer. was introduced. He said whenever
sickness, such as is really traceable to de-
fective plumbing or drainage, prevails in a
house, and no sufficient cause for it's exist
ence is apparent, the physician should not
be content until an examination has been
made by health officer or other competent
person to make sure that the house is free
from sanitary defects. Nothing should be
taken for granted In such matters and no
evidence accepted regarding the safety of
hidden plumbing work, as underground
drains. cesspools. traps, etc, except to have
them open to view and their real condition
proved beyond a doubt. Again, every
physician should warn his patients not to
lease or buy any dwelling, whether old or
new, without having the premises thor
oughly examined and obtaining certificate
of their healthfulness not the ordinary
landlords or agents verbal statement that
everything is lovely" ETC., but legal
document that will hold good in the Courts
and be ground for obtaining damages in
case the house should prove to be unsani-
tary and sickness result in consequence.
PLUMBING.
The cost OF perfect job of plumbing was
only twenty-five per cent. more than of
poor piece of work, and the expense OF
oyerhauling an ordinary house and making
the plumbing safe would soon be repaid by
the saving in doctors bills. More de-
pended upon the physicians efforts in edu-
eating the public than on anyone else, be- |
because he was rightly believed to be
disinterested.
The speaker related some curious in
stances of fatal disease caused from the |
cold air boxes of furnaces in which dead |
cats, rats, etc., had been found. 1t was
absolutely wrong to allow any drain con-
nection between the refrigerator and the