Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-21


A. this season of the year anything
amt would seem calculated to throw
.;cbt On the subject of fevers and put us
'r the way of guarding against them,
ought to be accepted as in order. There
,re 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 it may
he nut down as rather sure thing that
rrost 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-
rard them as something considered
durable, and so we go ahead taking our
chances, without exercising any particu-
, lar precautions looking to keeping them
of. 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 prepa-
ration OF this article by the impression
that Texas is more Of ga fever country"
than other states; indeed, taken as
whole, it is quite the reverse. But the
DeopIe 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. It is, however,
specially prepared for country people
more than for others, for, as too COM
mon thing, country people seem to give
less thought TO hygienio 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
r'healthy country" or "siokly coun-
try'' than anything else, and it is not
apt 10 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,
f'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,
aud 90 on doctoring for something, but
we don't know what. We give poisons
until we have so far carried the system
under their influence that they destroy
the microbes, and then the patient re-
covers. We give quinine or arsenIo to
"break the chills, - as we say, when for
sooth We are giving something to poison
ourselves sufficiently to render the sys-
TEN q nou-congenial 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 al the sur
face.
The microbe causing disease is living
creature. Almost anything calculated
10 destroy either animal or vegetable life
will kill it and thus render it harmless.
II is therefore safe precautlon, in case
where perfectly pure water cannot be
had, TO boil the water before applying it
10 drinking purposes; boiling will destroy
the harmful substances IL may contain.
It is said to be custom universal in
China to cook all water before drinking
1.-THE only safe way.
or course any foul matter about the
premises may be regarded as 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 ''flth" near at hand. Iti,
not at all absolutely necessary that the
foul matter should run into the water
iirect to produce contaminaton-there
Ire thousands of other ways for contain
nation to be brought about. i
There is really but one safe means for
destroying injurious microbes in impure
Eater-the application of heat. Freez-
ne out with ice cannot be accomplished. {
The minute organisms are put up some- !
hing on the plan OF fishes. A fish frozen ,
nto block of ice may remain there ap- '
'arently dead for months, but will re- {
i've and be all lively when the ice thaws c
way in spring. Just so with the mi ,
robe. But boil the live fish and you f
ill it; nature has made no provisions for v
IS revival to follow that ordeal. Ice q
ormed OF impure water is probably just =
S bad for the person using it as would c
ava baar a