The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-06-04


Board of Health has just sent to the
press pamphlet UPON the duty of citi-
zens and local health boards in measures
of defense against cholera and other pre-
ventable diseases. This pamphlet will,
when printed, be gratuitously distribut-
ed throughout the state; anyone may OBJ
tain copies by sending his or her address
to DR. j. I. Reeve, the secretary of the
board, at Appleton.
The board starts out by saying that
the best authorities are practically united
in the belief that cholera Will appear in
this country during the present year, and
that Wisconsin can secure exemption
only by its own e1ertions. If cholera
does not come, the sanitary measures
advised will not be lost exertion, for
those measures are the best safeguards
against other diseases also. Cholera
being liable to introduction in Wisconsin
in many ways-in the persons of those
affected by it, or more probably in the
soiled clothing or bedding of those who
have had tive should at once be ready
to meet it, for to wait longer is to lose
golden opportunity for its prevention.
To secure the benefits of preventative
measures, they should be adopted
promptly, they should be thorough, and
they must be continuous. A spasmodic
cleaning of the premises is not sufficient,
but cleanliness having been secured,
must be increasingly maintained, and in
this work all must help.
What the private citizen cannot or will
not do, should everywhere be supple
mented by what is done by health boards
and sanitary organizations. The execut-
i've officers of such boards should be
selected for promptness and faithfulness,
and for Intelligent acquaintance with the
necessary work. They should be in
vested with ample, and if circumstances
require it, with seemingly arbitrary
powers; they must be supplied with
money to pay for the work done, and
they should themselves be literally paid
for their services, their labors being
regarded as for the mutual insurance of
all citizens against disease and death.
In households, the most important
work is to be done. Cellars should be
cleaned, decaying and terminating vege-
tables removed with all rubbish of every
kind and burned or carted away; the
walls should be thoroughly whitewashed,
fresh air and sunshine admitted, the
drainage looked after and corrected and
everywhere dryness and purity of air
secured. The wood shed and all storage
rooms should be carefully cleaned out,
admitting air and sunshine ad Hbituna:
if necessary to secure these, cut out new
windows, enlarge doorways, remove
partitions, put in transmission fresh air
and sunshine are purifiers, disinfectants
superior to any to be bought in the shops.
Remove dense foliage which may inter-
capt light ard air from the house or
sheds. The yards and out buildings of
every description must be kept sorupu-
lousy clean, and pig-stys must be
abolished from all but sparseiy settled
communities. But above all look to the
water supply, the most frequent and
generally least suspected source OF sick
ness. The board declares that actual
observation leads it to the conclusion
that "by far the great majority" of wells
10 Wisconsin are impure. 1t says: ''In
fact the presumption in regard to the
water from wells in all cities and villages
is that it is unfit for use. and the circum-
stances Of its being bright, clear and
palatabls afford 40 evidence to the con- |
trary. During the prevalence of any
form of diarrhoeal disease, and especially |
if there is anything like cholera in the |
40 water from any well Except |
deep artesian wells) should be used with
out being previously boiled. Boiled
water is insipid to the taste, it is true,
bnt it may easily be rendered palatable
by the addition of some acid or by being
made into weak tea" All these pre-
cautions taken, each housekeeper should |
see that his neighbor is similarly cir
If cholera strikes q neigbor-
hood thus attentive to sanitary laws,
'tLe visitation will be light and its
duration brief"