Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-14
WHOLE NO. 10. .e37.
The Health of the State.

Dr. Gerrard G. Tyrrell, Permanent Sec
retary of the State Board of Health, in his
monthly report of the 10th instant makes
the following remarks relative to the
health OF the State and prevailing diseases ::
Inc mortality list for the month of De-
cenber shows decided increase over last
| hohth, which may be ascribed to the
ReaVy rams and the cold, damp weather
whlch characterized the meteorological
conditlon of the month It will be noticed
that the increased death rate was chiefly
among tnose suffering from diseases of the
| respiratory organs, and mo-e particularly
among those advanced in wears, who. from
Their declining vitality, readily succumb to
| even shght attacks. Among eighty-six
| localities sending in reports, we find that
! no deaths occurred in any of the following
| towns or villages, viz: Arbuckle, Castro.
| vile, Crescent City, College CITY. Dixon.
Fort Bidwell, Forest HILL Gait. HiIPs
Ferry, Haywards, Hollister, Jolon, Lincoln.
plymouth, Placerville, Lemoore. BEDDING.
Shasta, Santa Maria Willis and Williams.
As these localities embrace a yery large
population, the healthfulness of the State
may be readily inferred.
reports from ninety different localities
continue to show an almost entire absence
OF epidemic disease in the State. many of
our correspondents remark;ng that during
their solourn of years in California they
never experienced such a continual alb
sence OF disease as has prevailed for some
months past
Diarrh@a and dysentery, hitherto so
prevalent, is now limited to few localities.
and in these the disease is of a mild char.
acter, ana Tor the most part dependent
| upon local conditions
Scarlet fever prevails quite extensiyelvin
Shasta. Millviile, Cottonwood. Downic-
vile, Tehama county, Spadra. Azusa. Los
Angeles and Riverside
Measles are quite prevalent in Pomona.
and have appeared in Millville.
Smallpox was reported in Lakeport-
| three cases being SO reported Our CORE
spondent, Dr. ID. W. White, at once COM
menced thorough investigation into the
truth of the report and visited the patients:
he at once discovered that the cases were
| not smallpox, but chickenpox of a rather
severe character. This opinion was con-
frmed by DR.. G. 7. Mason, and the COM
munity at once relieved from what might
have been a smallpox panic. We again
| take this occasion to urge upon our CORE
spondents the necessity of vaccinating those
unvaccinated in their vicinities
Diphthera continues apparently unabated
| in San Francisco, and prevails quite extern
sively in Santa Cruz, Modesto, Los Gatos,
San Diego, Santa Rosa, Cotton, Plymouth,
College City, Etna Mills, Rocklin. and
Amador City. The deaths from this dis
ease this month outnumber bv two-thirds
| those from typhoid fever in this State,
which shows an amount of apathy and
carelessness in the precautions which
should be taken to prevent its spread that
| is almost criminal. There is no reason
| whatever why this disease cannot be con-
trolled and confined to the person afflicted
| Our correspondents in the infected dis
| tricts are all reliable educated physicians
| fully alive to the sanitary necessities of the
| cases, and unsparing in their efforts to
| isolate and disinfect the disease but until
! the public is as thoroughly instructed in
| the contagiousness of diphtheria, and looks
upon it with as much dread as it does the
| smallpox, the infection will be permitted
to diffuse itself and valuable lives be un-
necessarily lost.
Group prevails in the several localities
that are afflicted with diphtheria, and no
doubt from the same cause The deaths
from it keep steady pace with those from
| diphtheria.
| Erysipelas seems to prevail to slight
| extent III Truckee, Santa Maria, Calico.
| Amador, Lincoln, Gait, Williams, Vallejo,
Shasta, Crescent City, Martinez Etna Mills
Red Bluff and Livermore; the type is mild
and attended by very trihing mortality.
| Typhoid and typho-malarial feyers,
which may be classed together, prevailed to
a limited degree; they are mentioned in
the reports from Red Bluff, Angels Camp,
lone City, College City, Igo, Vallejo, Fort
Bidwell (Siskiyou county,, Williams, Sacra-
mento and San Francisco. The type is not
severe and the mortality limited.
| Diseases of the respiratory organs. as
might be expected at this season of the
year, prevailed to a considerable extent
throughout the State, and their fatality is
proportionate to the lowness of the tenn
perature and the presence or excess of
moisture and fog, The relations, however.
between the weather and diseases are not
always uniform, much depending upon the
environment of the patient and his consti-
tutional energy.
| Whooping- cough is becoming quite prey
alent, which indicates somewhat the truth
of DIR. Sturgis' opinion as deduced from his
vast experience in London as physician to