The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-12-11
SOME SUGGESTIONS.

Last winter there were ten or twelve cases
of diphtheria on Munjoy Hill, of malignant
type, the most of them resulting fatally. The
disease fingered until summer when it ap-
parently died out. This fall however the
disease reappeared, and at the present time
it is causing considerable alarm among the
residents of the Hill. Cases have occurred
in other parts of the city, but the disease APP
pears to have been confined largely to the
Hill 1t is the prevailing belief among the
residents of that locality that the disease had
its origin in an unsanitary condition of the
Monument street school house. In support OF
this opinion are cited the facts that the ma
jority of the cases have been of children who
were pupils at this school, and that the dis
ease disappeared soon after this school was
closed for the summer vacation and reap
peared soon after it was opened in the fall.
These facts though by no means conclusive
are sufficient to arouse suspicion that all is
not right in that school house, and the school
committee have acted judiciously lin closing
the school until a thorough examination can
be made.
But the residents of the Hill should not be
too sure that they have traced the cause OF
the disease to the school house. When dis
ease recognised as filth disease breaks out
in house suspicion should first be directed
against the sanitary condition of the house
when it appears, especially If the victims
are children. Children spend more time in
their homes than they do anywhere else. Six
hours of the twenty-four they breathe the air
of school houses, but during the most of the
remaining eighteen they breathe the air OF
their homes. First and foremost, therefore, at
tention should be paid to the air they breathe
at home. 1t does not follow that because no
bad odors are perceptible in house that,
therefore, the air is pure and wholesome.
The most deadly gases are odorless. The
only practicable way to determine that no
noxiOus gases are present in house is to de-
termine that there is no way in which they
can get there. People rely upon their noses
in this matter altogether too much. a care
full examination with their eyes, coupled
with little knowledge of the laws govern
ing the movement of gases, would generally
lead to- a more correct appreciation OF the
real condition of things. 1t is fact unfor-
tunately that much of the plumbing OF our
houses is very defective, the result sometimes
of ignorance, sometimes of carelessness, but
most frequently of a desire to do it as cheap
ly as possible. The modern water closet Is
great improvement over the old fashioned
vault when properly made, but when it is de-
fectiye, when not properly ventilated and
trapped, and the gases escape from it, it is
much more dangerous, inasmuch as it is gen"
erally much nearer the living rooms and
therefore its exhalations are much more like
yto be breathed in by the inmates OF the
house. We have no doubt that should an ex-
pert make an examination of the drainage Oh
the houses of Portland, he would, in ma
jority of cases pronounce it defective. we
have no doubt danger turks in hundreds Oh
houses where it is not even suspected.
Prolific causes of the spread OF diseases
of the nature of diphtheria are the lack
of proper isolation of patients sick with
them and the neglect of thorough dlsintec-
ton of articles of furniture or clothing that
may have absorbed the poison. The circu-
lars of the State Board of Health have IN
doubtedly done something to correct these
faults, but much carelessness in regard to