Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-13
THE HEALTH OF THE STATE.
Report of the Secretary of the State
Board of Health for September.

Report of the Secretary of the Stat,
Board of Health for September.
DR.. 9. G. Tyrrell, Secretary of the State
/ Board of Health, under date of October
10th, includes the following remarks in hi;
summary relative to the health of the State
and prevailing diseases:
Mortality reports, received from seventy
eight Localities IN various parts of the State
show that the death rate still continue:
much below what we might have expected
from the meteorological changes expert
enced during the month of September. Ii
TACT, fifteen localities, representing a popu
! iatlon OF over 10000, viz: Yuba City, An.
I gels Camp, Gonzales, Brentwood, Cotton.
wood, Shasta City, Truckee, Castroville
Azusa, Arbuckle, Gait, Fort Bidwell, Santa
Maria, Plymouth and Bodie, report nc
deaths whatever, which speaks well for the
| general salubrity of the season.
| Reports from over eighty localities de.
! yeiop remarkable absence of epidemic
disease IN any part of the State, diarrhea
and dysentery being still in advance of all
other affections It prevails in Shasta,
Ventura, Calico and Daggett Bakersfield,
| Cotton, Chico, Azusa, Arbuckle, Willis,
MARTINEZ Truckee, Newcastle, Sacramento,
San Francisco, lone, Yuba CITY, Vallejo
| Anderson and Jolon.
Scarlet fever is mentioned in Anderson,
Chico, Weayerville, Fall River, Ukiah and
Redding.
Measles still prevail to limited extent
in st. Helena, Martinez, Downieville, Val
LEGO, Livermore, Angels Camp, Nicolaus
| and Dixon.
Erysipelas is noted as present in Sacra-
mento, Anderson, Placerville, Livermore,
| Calico, st. Helena, Plymouth. Roseyille,
Nicolaus and Newcastle.
Dlphthera is reported in Jolon, Monte
rey county, by DR.. ]. Moss MCGOWAN. who
writes that the disease has reappeared in
| the same locality where it prevailed last
January, owing to lack of proper disinfec-
| ton.
DR.. H. n. Rucker, in reply to commu-
nlcation from this Board says that diph-
liberia has appeared in MERGED, but that the
newspaper accounts were much exagger-
ated, there being but two cases in the town
last month and but one death. If DR..
Rucker is invested by the authorities with
sufficient authority there will be no danger
OF the disease becoming epidemic in that
vicinity. DR. Rowley reports diphtheria as
| quite prevalent in Fall River He is now
investigating its cause and will endeayor
to arrest its spread. The disease also pre-
walls in Liyermore, San Francisco. Placer
vile, Sacramento, Ukiah, Los Angeles and
Hanford
Typho-malarial fever is noted in Ander-
son, Placerville, Calico, Weaverville,
plymouth. Arbuckle, Truckee, Shasta,
Vallejo and Dixon.
Typhoid fever is mentioned N many
| more localities than last month; it is noted
in Anderson, Calico, ST. Helena. Santa
Clara, San Francisco, Fort Bidwell. Will
Jams, Sacramento, Weaverville, Volcano.
RUseville Willis Martinez. Truclee
Vallejo, Dixon, Santa Ana and some few
other towns; on the whole the tendency
to this disease shows a decided increase
this month, which is in accordance with
what experience has led us to expect. as
many years of observation has convinced
US that enterlc fever prevails more extern
slvely III this State during the autumn and
early winter months than in the spring
Depending, as we believe it does. upon
local conditions, appearing in dwellings
where no expectation of such a disease
would naturally arise, and again remain
ing ABSENT from localities where it miphL
be supposed it should prevail. we are
naturally led to inquire into the reason. if
any, why typhoid should prevail at one
season more than another, and what rela
ton the disease bears to the circumstances
surrounding it. Max V. Pettenkoffer. who
has given this subject much attention. is of
the OPINION that the increase or decrease of
typhoid fever comedies with the rise or fall
OF the Subsoll water, increasing as the
water falls and decreasing as it rises and
explains 1t by the assertion that with the
recession of the water the air enters deeper
layers of soil and there stimulates into
activity and multiplication disease germs
which were dormant SO long as thew were
submerged IN water. DR.. Henry Baker
Secretary OF Michigan State Board of
Health, most competent authority. has
observed the same coincidence, and a COM
parison of the meteorological anc other
conditions led him to conclude that no cir
cumstance known to him varied in such
manner as to explain the unusual pre-
Yaience OF typhoid fever in certain months.
except the condition of the ground water
as indicated by its lowness in wells. In
this State q perhaps similar condition ex
lists at certain seasons; as the rivers fall.
the marshes and ponds dry up, and the
subsoll water attains its lowest level, we
ind that malarial and enteric fever pre-
vail; but this connection is not inyariable
or applicable every year or for all places.
In San Francisco, for instance. as shown
by DR.. A. Perry, typhoid fever prevails
more intensely during the rainy season.
when the streets are washed and the
sewers flushed with water In Sacra-
mento, on the contrary, if typhoid fever
prevails at all, it is in. the fall
when the water in the river is lowest.
or after the first rain succeeded by dry and
warm weather. In the highlands and
foothills, where the water is mostly pro-
cured from wells, typhoid is noticed after
the first rains when the wells receive the
surface water. All are agreed that filth and
eXcremenhtlous matter, without free access
OF pure air, and sewer gas and noXious
efhuylas, under the same conditions NAV
become potent secondary factors in disease,
and by their presence develop and fructify
poison that otherwise could not exist
Water exposed to the contamination of
sewage, or other forms of filth, should be
regarded with the gravest suspicion, as
neither chemical analysis nor microscopical
examination has been able to detect the
subtle poison to which the fever is attrib-
utabel. All possible sources of impurity
should be speedily removed, as hidden in
the recesses of some neglected clubhouse or
within the confines of an apparently harm
less garbage aeap, there may be lying dor
mant the germs of a fatal epidemic which
only awaits an additional though to us un-
known, factor to wake them into life and
destructive energy.
Smallpox has not yet made any progress
III this State. 1t is spreading in Mexico
and in Canada, and has appeared in New
Hampshire and New York II also pre-
walls in England France Belgium, Italy,
Austria, Russia and South America, coun-
tries with which we are in constant COM
munication by travel and otherwise. I'm
der these circumstances we may very safely
predict the advent of the disease TO this
coast before very long; it is therefore the
act of prudence to take early warning, and
prepare to render the invasion as limited
as possible, and this can only be done by
vaccination. 1t is a disgrace to civilization
TO hear of an epidemic of smallpox in this
century, when the means of averting it are
so accessible, so certain, and so innocuous
to the individual and the community.
The San Francisco Tax Roll.
Auditor Strother, of San Francisco, some
DAYS since forwarded To the State BOARD of