Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-17
NOT ALARM, BUT ORDINARY PRE-
CAUTION

Dr. MeareS, the Health Officer of San
Francisco, who has had wide experience in
treating epidemics and in public santa
ton, in an article in which he expresses
the belief that cholera will reach the coast
says that the health officers should have
force enough to enable the department to
institute house to house inspection" to
see that vaults and drains are kept in a
proper condition and all yards properly
cleaned. One of the most fruitful sources
of poison on which epidemics such as
cholera and yellow fever feed, is decaying
vegetable matter. In city like Sacra-
mento the seyerest punishment should be
meted out to those who cast out vegetable
matter to decay in the alleys and streets,
instead of burying it or destroying it by
fire, the better plan by far. House to
house inspection is precisely what
what is needed here. But it will
be valueleSs unless we have competent and
fearless men to aid the Health Officer in
the duty, and unless they are fully sus-
tanned by the authorities. There must be
no temporizing, no delays by law suits and
appeals and catch-penny protests We
have no desire to alarm the people, but VIII
not be privy to the act of deceiving them
into neglect of ordinary precautions against
the probable advent of an epidemic, since
we are doubly menaced-with cholera from
twoquarters and yellow fever from one. One
absolutely necessary and immediate step to
be taken is the cleansing of our drains,
and the publication so far as is possible of
the pools south of the city and the notori-
Gus China Slough ON the north This latter
should have immediate attention, and its
southern and eastern banks should be
covered, after being cleaned, with new
earth or sand, and the most vigilant
guard maintained against its further
pollution. There is something practical in
the suggestion that was made here some
years ago, to purify the slough by injecting
into 1t large amount of sediment from the
American river. 1t is believed that this
may be done by means of syphon pump
and a hume in 4 very rapid and economical
manner, or by some similar method to that
suggested. The objection that is raised tc
cleaning out cesspools and filth pits, on the
ground that to empty the matter into the
river or deposit it on lands near the city
will be more dangerous than to let it re
main as it IS has no force No one has
proposed to dump it into the river, or tc
make of it new disease breeding bee
Only the gross ignorance that mask.
itself behind anonymity in print
would have drawn any such conclusion
from the REcoRD-UYIoNs suggestions yes
terdav, and which were based on the bes
advice known to sanitary science and OK
perience. The destruction of the poisonous
quality of the deposits by exposure and ar
tihcial heat, and other methods natural anC
artificial, is the very least of the task thi
city must undertake. The old cesspool
should be cleaned out before being filled VI
that IS highly essential. There arr
numerous house drains that lead into mere
surface or box and key pools that ar,
abominable nuiSanceS and should be i'm
nediately abated. The man who main
tains such on his premises is guilty of ;
suicidal act, to say nothing of the cxposur,
of his family and neighbors to disease
There is. as San Francisco contemporary
well remarks, no wisdom in being silent OIL
these subiects-the truth should be spoker
to the people that there is imminent DANCE
that cholera will enter this country. If w
escape it will be simply miraculous. Quar-
antine never has, and will not now, serve
as a complete protection, since passenger
who are landed in perfect health are known
to carry the seeds of the disease in theil
baggage, as was once the case in the Unitet
States, when the epidemic appeared il
three widely separated places simultanc