The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-12-13

weatherdeadIy gases from the de-
composition leaked out. The first one
to sicken was the eldest child, her do
nestle duties keeping her at the sink.
and the air she inhaled there. con-
taminated by the unhealthful sink. SO
weakened her that she went down
first"
Flint, in his practice OF medicines
gives an account Of typhoid fever in,
small village in western New York.
The settlement consisted Of nine fam
lilies, closely grouped within an area of
one hundred rods In diameter. In the
center Of the group was the tavern. "a
stranger from New England, travelling
In a stsge coach, which passed through
this settlement. had been i'll for sever
al days, and on his arriving at his stop
coed further. Up to this time
typhoid fever had never been
been known in that neighborhood. :"
Within a month afterward fOrty-three
out OF the population of this settlement
OF nine families were affected with ty-
phoid fever. Only one family escaped
and that was situated equally near as
the others to the tavern. But what is re-
markable, all the families, except the
one that escaped, drank from the wa
ter of the tavern well. On account of a
quarrel existing between this family
and the tavern keeper they were forbid
den the use of the we'll, and had, conse
quently dug one for themselves.
In paper by DIR. Bedford Brown.
read at the thirty-ninth annual meet
ing of the American Medical associa-
ton, appears this: "a family resid-
ing in a most salubrious location on a
mountain top, with delightfully."- pure
air, was attacked with exceedingly ma
lignant dysenterY. The presence OF
such a disease in such locality Gre
ated surprise. until il was discovered
that a privy and a pigsty had been 10
Gated in a situation from which drain
age into fountain of drinking water
WAS effected by every rainfall.
But need not quote from the medi-
cal literature. which is replete with in
stances OF this kind. We have them
here in our city. have at the present
time a striking illustration in my own
practice, a family of nine in this city,
SIX OF whom are afflicted with typhoid
fever. Two were first attacked, and
In few days two others were taken
>dOwn, then the father sickened and
finally, the youngest child, an infant a
little over a year old.
1.-THE family are intelligent people,
cleanly and tidy, and comfortably stu
ated. The sanitary condition OF the
1 U4Clu H1o dPP0lCl4OAy OAOOAAOhSs
But there was a ceSSpoOl, which re-
ceived the waste waters from the kitch-
en- sink. The soil pipe conveying this
material passed near the ciStern. An
examination revealed leakage in the
pipe. The deep soil extending from
/ this point was soaked by the escaping
| matter, and foul fluids found their
way into the cistern, which contained
the drinking water for the family. The
cement of the cistern, at the cores
| ponding point, was cracked and COW
cred with film of decomposing organ
ic matter.
| To-day there are in our city hun
dred cesspOols-holes in the earth
sunk down to the gravel, to receive the
liquid wastes from the hoUs sholdsEanC
1 the people-and the more respectable
and intelligent people they are-con
graduate themselves upon their con
veniences! All! little do they dream
of the danger that constantly sur
rounds them.
| Within these abominable recesses
silently but constantly, are proceeding
the processes of decomposition and pu
trifaction, which, like the sword a
Damocles, are ever threatening thu
lives of their household. From these
abominable recesses the polluted liquids
are slowly but ever permeating thu
surrounding earth, gradually reaching
out farther and farther to our wells
and stealing through crevices and soil
to our ciSterns.
In our city, from thirty to forty feet
beneath the surface Of the earth, is a
stratum of sand and gravel. Immedi
ately below this is found the water thai
supplies our wells. Think of the scores
of cesspools, seething with pollution
in this gravel and sand. Think OF thu
immense cesspoOlS of certain hotels, o
the hospital and of the Santa Fe depot
While our city ordinances require, il
the future, that all privys shall b'
built with boxes or earth closets abov'
the ground, yet there are in our cit
many hundreds of nasty vaults. =.
When shall the time come inevitably i
must come unless we remove these
evils-the history of hundreds of cite
and towns evidence this fact-wheI
shall the time come when our city Il
smitten with the calamity of a terrible
epidemic?
In London, about the middle of the
Sixteenth century, more than three
thousand people persisted in single
night from the plague, and during thu
succeeding ten years in the same city
more than one hundred Thousand diet
from the same cause; and these dc
Wasting scourges continued until tn
great city was purged by fire and TIN
abominable accommodations of filth con
sumed by devOuring flames. A new
system of building, of drainage, of sew
erage and of water, was adopt
ed, and the deadly pestilence ceased t.
exist.
But come to the present age, an,
in our own country. Memphis had ii
tifty years no less than twenty-t w,
epldemics of various diseases. He
annual death rate during nOn-epidethi
years rarely fell below 30 to 100
and in her epidemics, her mortalit
amounted to the appalling figures O
1O1 to ! 200. At length, wheI
almost ruined by the scourges. sh
removed her vaults and cesspoOls ant
established system of sewerage an
we hear no more of suffering Memphis
Thus far we have escaped the evil
: of general contamination. We hav
never had an epidemic of disease q
any kind.
Perhaps the nearest approach to a
epidemic was in September, 1881
when in a certain locality, five familie
; were afflicted with malignant dipthE
ria. There were in all fifteen cases
These families were situated in clos
which was discharged the liquid sewer
, age from hotel. The drain becam
intolerably offensive from the stencil
: evolved by the decomposing filth
/ But whether this was the cause of thi
. local epidemic, / cannot say. Tn
coincidence however, is remarkable.
Naturally our city has no infirmities
: On her natal day she was possessed i
the fullest degree of the qualities es
sential to ealthfulness-''puce all
pure water and pure soil"
: Situated on a high position, not fla
/ but undulating and uniformly slopin
/ from her northern limits to the south
her soil is naturally dry and perfectl
: drained. The fall from Twelfth ave
} nue. 1.-THE northern limit of the old tow
, site) to the Cottonwood river is eight
feet-at the rate of one foot to tn
, hundred. The slight dapressions i
the north part of the town converge 1
: larger ones, which, as they procee
, further, become ravines. There al
3 four of these raViHeS, one in the cas-
Z and one in the west part of town. an
I two in the central portions, one bein
: 1 IN C0nUrpSS and the other nm MaPhar