New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-08-19
DIPHTHERI4 At CICERO CORNERS

The Syracuse Standard makes an ill-natured
attempt to throw cold water upon THE TRIBUNE
FrcshAir Fund Itcharges ~ that children are not
selected 18th proper care, ~ that there Is danger
in receiving them from crowded tenements. since
some of them bring disease from the city. and ~
that the ger is responsible for sending children
from diphtheria-infected tenements into country
homes. These serious accusations are based upon
the following statement in its columns:
unfortunate that has under our notice
the INTRODUCTION tdphthera into The eastern part Oh ns
OF Clay In this county Six persons tee r le nv
children from New.York City. No particular blame may
care Of the children may have oTersteppcd looking
out for the families to whom the children were 10 DO
The TRIBUNE has made a painstaking and
thorough investigation of these charges tbs true
that there have been several deaths from
dphthera in Cicero Corners, near Syracuse, where
party of six children have recently been staying.
1t is not true that any one of those six children
either carried tho disease into the village or had
come from tenement house in New-York where
diphthera had been prevailing. The manager has
visited the families from which the children were
sent aud ascertaned that there was no sickness In
any of the houses resembling diphthGrla. Inc
children were selected by one OF the most con-
scentious and intelligent assistants who volunteer
annually for this work. and there is no evidence o.
carelessness or incompetence OF her part. corre-
spOndent from the village has informed the man.
ager that one of the children stated that she came
from a house where dphth,ra had recently been
raging; that she herself had had the disease and
that little while before she went into the country
q little boy had died on the third floor above her
mothers rooms The house in question has been
visited and careful inquiries have been made from
floor to floor. The house is remarkably neat and
we'll kept and tho occupants deny that there has
been case of diphthera in any pat OF the build
ing since Christmas, when there was one death
from it. At that time the little girl had swelling
in the throat. which was lanced. but it is by no
means certain that the disease was dphtherla. 1t
is grossly improbable that this mild throat afiec
ton of last December. the fatal case in the same
house at that time could have caused malignant
outbreak of the disease in the country eight
months afterward. AS for the little boy on the
third floor who died in July, he did not have
diphtheria, but Group, as the family and physician
positively affirm.
While 1t may be natural for the people in the
village to suspect that the Fresh-Air children
carried the disease into then hospitabe homes. we
are convinced that the canse of the outbreak was
local and shat the OF the SOntagion were not
imported from New-York. The six children went
MP on the train with largo company, and If any
one of them had been tainted with it, other
children in the party would have been infected.
detailed and thorough investigation OF the case
enables us to assure tho patrons Of this beautiful
charity that the charge that it is an agency in
spreading disease is without foundation. Over
40 900 children have been sent on these annual
vacations. Only in one instance has any mistake
respecting health been made