Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-02
COM M UnIuATIONS.

Some Facts for the Worlds Scientist. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 The yearly average number of deaths from typhoid fever in Boston for the five years ending 1887 was 177; from diphthsria and croup, AT; from diarrhoesl diseases, sos. Its population is 400.0 Last year, which may be taken as m average year, there were in New York city, according to Dr. Traoy's report, 1914 deaths from diphtheria and 2, ,499 deaths from diarrhosal diseases. It's is 1,500,000 In this report no mention is made of typhoid fever. In 1887, which may be taken as an average year, there were $50 cases of diphtheria in Brooklyn. Its population is SOO,0oO. The records for diarrhosal and typhoid diseases are not at hand, but it is safe to say they will not vary much from New York and Boston. These cities are deprived of privies, and eesspools, their plumbing is under rigid inspection. The general death rate for New York is about 2e, Brooklyn 23 and Boston 25 per 1000 of the population. For the five years ending 1888 the average annual death rate for New Haven was 179O per 1000. The average number of deaths from diphtheria, 5s; from typhoid, 29; from diarrhoal dis eases, 119. It's population is s5,0o0. Now this typhoid center, this nest of cesspools and privies which dovetail in with the wells; this city of bad plumbing supplies and worse workmanship yields less than 50 deaths from diphtheris per 100000 population against 100.125 deaths from same disease per 100, ,O00 of population of three
 %1c hoSI per 100, ,O00 of population against about 40 deaths from typhoid in the same proportion of population in the three other cities and about 100 deaths from diarrhoeals sdissase per 1O0, ,O0O of population against more than 200 deaths from same disease per 100000 of the population in New York, Brooklyn and Boston. The objection that comparison ought not to be made with these cities be- cause they are so much larger than New Haven has been disposed of by sanitGrians who tell us that large city properly in- speeted is and ought to be healthier than country town. These three cities have their meat, milk, fish, fruit, provision, beer. dairy,
 vinegar, ice cream, maccaroni, soda water and all sorts of other inspectors, get their
 general death rate Is much higher and their
 gigantic death rate is in many instances
 more than double that of New Haven with out ordinances or inspectors, yet which is crowded with all of those causes of disease
 which are absent in the three larger cities. Do not these figures mean that
 neither privies, cesspools, wells or
 had plumbing have anything to do with the
 production of typhoid, diphtheria or
 disrrhea. Is not the inference logical one
 that there must be some other cause for these
 diseasesl Some unknown causea May not
 that unknown cause, which is so prolific in
 New York, Brooklyn and Boston not also
 exist in New Haven, and be the cause of
 these diseases here as we'll as there? The
 sanitarians say there is Il per cent. less of
 zymotic diseases in the three inspected cities than there was before the passage of their plumbing ordinances, and the removal of privies, cesspools and wells. Were these the causes of zymotic disease ought not the ee crease to be not Il per cent. but 22 or even A per cent.a There is a general reduction of zymotic disease all over the land, town and country. There is nearly corresponding in- crease in some other diseases. Do the plumb | ing ordinances and inspections of Now York and Boston affect the mortality from zymotic diseases in country town of Connecticut Tho sanitarians attribute this decrease oi zymotic disease to their labers. In 1878 | there were 97 deaths from pneumonia and ! bronchitis in New Haven; in 1858 there were 2O7 deaths from the same disease. Pneumonia, which was moi l common thirty years ago, ia HOW in winter l and spring scourge of our northern and eastern States. Here is the coincident; but ! is the incoberent talk of the sanitarians l about an imaginary gas, an imaginary germ ! and no less imaginary ptomaine the cause \ of the enormous and startling increase ol | deaths from pneumonia The eminent sani | tarians are at loggerheads about the cause oi 1 the little disease that the college has suf' ! fersd, Here, as elsewhere, when they have | been called on to explain the causes of dis ease, they have shown 8 grosser ignorance ! than could have possibly been imputed te 1 them had they kept quiet. To follow them 1 in their vagaries is disgusting task. Ina, they should have the effrontery to call theil 1 i'm mprovisations sanitary science is an insult l ly propose now to institute inspections of tht l students' food in their boarding houses 1 This to be of any use must be microscopioa l and chemical. Anyone who has ever heard l those young fellows howl can form some ides of the yell they would send up waiting for their dinner, while the microsoopist: l were wrangling about the identity of som'
 germ. All this hubbub and fury over thi l little futter of disease in the college is thu | natural outcome of the efforts of the sanitar,
 terrorists to keep the mind of the public ol | Q continual strain and in continual pani ] about its health. New Havens water wa
 "suspicious." Had these tsrrorists. beel
 blindly followed we should to- day be under
 half million dollars useless expense for nev
 water source. New Haven's soil was seeth
 ing with corruption. When the terrorist
 were asked why we did not get sick, the,
 said there was delay about the arrival o
 the germ It had failed to connect. The
 predicted great calamitiss; they named tn
 year, almost the month when one pes.ilenc
 would arrive; that year proved to be one c
 the healthiest New Haven had ever known There was John of Patnaos fervor in thes
 predictions; there was Wiggins characte
 in their fulfllment. These same tel rorists are now clamoring before the ordi
 nance committee for the privilege of pasi
 ing a set of tyranous bylaws ths will clothe them with power to abuse thei ) fellow-citizens by odious inspections. Fc
 fifteen years they have traduced the eharas