Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-17

that would seem calculated to throw
Tight on the subject of fevers and put us
in the way of guarding against them,
ought TO be accepted as in order. There
are many kinds of fevers to which the
human family is heir, some of them OF
wide range and some peculiar to certain
sections or localities, but really 1t may
be put down as rather sure thing that
most of them spring from the same
general cause. AS rule, after except
ing few forms, we don't dread fevers
so much as we should, perhaps. We re-
gard them as something considered
durable, and so we go ahead taking our
chances, without exercising any particu-
lar precautions looking to keeping them
off, when the fact is, only very little
care at the right time might save US
much trouble and suffering.
We are not stimulated into the preps
ration of this article by the Impression
that Texas is more of "a fever country"
than other states; indeed, taken as a
whole, it is quite the reverse. But the
people of all our states are liable to fe
vers more or less at this season of the
year, and hence this article is intended
for general application. 1t is, however,
specially prepared for country people
more than for others, for, as a too COM
mon thing, country people seen to give
less thought to hygienic matters than
do the people of cities and towns.
A physician writes to the New York
Tribune that the water we use goes fur
Their towards making what we call a
"healthy country or \ ''sickly coun
try" than anything else, and it is no
apt to be the mineral elements in the
water that has anything to do with it.
True, there might be such thing as un-
wholesome water due to its mineral ele-
ments, but most generally the trouble
lies in what we call stagnation; that is,
"spoiled water Many person who
would not use "spoiled meats' under
any consideration will use spoiled water
freely without giving the matter
thought. Water spoils just as readily as
does meat, or vegetables, or almost any
other species of food for that matter.
1t Is now quite widely believed by
scientists that fevers are wholly the re-
suit of microbe infection, and that this
infection is more apt to be impaired by
spoiled (stagnated) water than by any
thing else. We call the trouble malaria,
and go on dootoring for something, but
we don't know what. We give poisons
until we have go far carried the system
under their influence that they destroy
the microbes, and then the patient re-
covers. We give quinine or arsenic to
"break the chills, " as we say, when for
sooth we are giving something to poison
ourselves sufficiently to render the sys-
tenn a n-conRenial abiding place for a
minute form of animal life that has To-
Gated within us.
Give heed to the water you drink, says
the writer, for typhoid fever and dysen-
terry (Which is only another form of
fever) are invariably lurking IN impure
water that has reached its impure state
by exposure on the surface of the earth
or by the drainage into it of some kind of
impurity that has taken shape Ut the sur
face.
The microbe causing disease is living
creature Almost anything calculated
TO destroy either animal or vegetable life
nil kill it aud thus render it harmless.
1t is therefore a safe precautIon, in case
where perfectly pure water cannot be
had, to boil the water before applying it
TO drinking purposes; boiling will destroy
the harmful substances it may contain.
1t is said to be a custom universal in
China to cook all water before drinking
1.-THE only safe way.
OF course any foul matter about the
premises may be regarded as a prolific
source of disease, yet it is by no means
certain that most OF the bad effects from
sources of this character does not finally
reach us through the water we drink,
the water having been contaminated
from the "filth'' near at hand. 1t is
not at all absolutely necessary that tn q
foul matter should run into the water
direct to produce contaminaton-there
are thousands of other ways for contain
inatiou TO be brought about.
There is really but one safe means for
destroying Injurious microbes in impure
water-the application of heat. Freez-
ing out with ice cannot be accomplished.
The minute organisms are put up some
thing on the plan of fishes. A fish frozen
into block of ice may remain there ap-
parently dead for months, but will re-
vive and be all li,ely when the ice thsws
away in spring. Just so with the mi
crobe. But boil the live fish and you
kill it; nature has made no provisions for
its revival to follow that ordeal. Ice
formed OF impure water is probably just
as bad for the person using it as would
have been the impure water itself before
freezing.
NJ