The record-union., 1891-03-08
ICE AND SICKNESS.
A Denver Physician Writes His Views
of the Causes of Disease,

Va tuS SduScS VI OlScaSS.
The physician is frequently asked the
question as to the cause of SO much ty-
phoid fever in Denver, while the place in
| other respects is comparatively healthy,
and as the physician should be to some
extent a conservator of public health, as
such guardian l will attempt to answer
the question as to at least two of the most
important causes. OF course impure
water is looked to by common consent as
the great source of typhoid fever; and it
| will be hard to make some people under
stand that there is even more fruitful
cause than the water we drink; and it is
so simply because it is not so common
and people in general know less about it
and its source OF supply. l mean impure
| ice.
We visit any of the stagnant pools or
| lakes around Denver in summer and wit
ness carcasses of dead animals, together
with human and animal eXcrement, float
| ing on the water, and observe the sewage
from stock-yards and all manner of filth
| and nastiness flowing into these same
| lakes; and then. to give our oltactories a
| treat, we take boat ride on these lakes,
and as the paddles of the boat stir up the
water we see the green, Shiny stuff reek-
| ing with filth and smelling akin to our
| most filthy closet vaults and then, and
not till then, are we most thoroughly sat
isfied that we don't want to drink that
water, and we are sure of it now; and if
! any one offered it to us we would be hor-
rified and get into perfect rage, and
might knock the party offering it down,
which would be quite right.
Let us see what else we do. Some of
us are real nice and want to preserve our
! health, and to this end we buy artesian
water (which is chemically pure as far as
filth is concerned), and to make it cool we
dump piece of ice into it. Others boil
the Holly water to kill the poison germs,
and then use ice to cool it; while others
| still use ice to cool their tea-ice from
these identical bodies of water we have
just been speaking of. To be sure, the
ice may look clear and clean. Now, this
same ice may be, and probably is. teem-
called bacteria typhoid fever germs.
Thus cooled, these beverages we quatf
with avidity, little dreaming that we are
i'll so doing taking myriads of poisonous
germs hundreds to the cubic centimeter)
| into our systems, that in the near future
may bring us down to our sick-beds and
possibly to death.
The sickness may not come on at once,
but after awhile we may begin to feel
| little out of health. We experience fever
ishness by spells, have headache, appe-
tite gone; dlarrhoa may supervene; feel
| weary and lazy. This state of things
may go on for weeks before we come
down to our sick beds. All this time we
may be partaking more and more of this
filthy and impure water, and at the same
time our systems are becoming more and
more loaded down with the poison germs.
In the face of all these facts it is quite
amazing that more people do not sicken
and die, and vet thousands whose atten-
ton for the time being may have been
awakened to the enormity of the mistake
OF using impure ice viii in few months,
when warm weather comes on, run the
risk of using the vile stuff and not be
aware of what they are doing until some
one, a friend or relative, gets dangerously
i'll, and they begin to reflect. Much bet
ter use no ice at all than to expose ones
self to such dangers.
1t is appalling to recall the monstrouslv
filthy things that refined and cultivated
people do. just think of ladies, while
making change on street-cars and other
places, putting pieces of silver coin, and
even bank notes, into their mouths (be-
| cause they haven't third hand | sup
pose), and no one knows what this same
| money may have been in contact with.
1t may have recently been in the pos
session of persons suffering from the
most loathsome diseases that human
flesh is heir to, persons that are not over
careful as to where they carry their
money. These practices should be
stopped. Do YOU hear?-S. d. Boasteef,
N. d., fa Dca0eS Republican.