The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-14
THE HEALTH OF THE CITY.
Some Questions Discussed oy Health
Officer Drummer.

Z
Officer Drummer.
The publication Of the municipal reports
gives to the public some interesting reading.
The health Of the city is a matter in
which every citizen is interested. The
health officers report shows that there were
1910 deaths In the city last year-464 OF
white people and TAG Of colorei.
The total mortality was l39 less than II
was the year before. There were more
deaths from consumption than any other
disease. OF the 191 deaths from the disease
63 we're whites and IDS we're colored. Pneu-
monia caused II deaths, 81 among whites
and 80 among colored people.
In reference TO the death rate among col
ored children the health officer says the
same high mortality prevails. Fifty per
cent OF the colored children who die, be
says, never have received medical atten-
ton. The health officer adds that the
fault is in two directions ana
there is remedy for both sides.
In many instances the parents Will not
call physician, claiming that the children
died before they could go for physician,
although a cross-exsmination Will snow
that the children had been sick from two 20
ten days before they died. Some provision,
the health officer recommends, should be
made to stop this criminal neglect on the
part of negro parents. The other SIDE OF
the picture, he says, is just as true as tne
first.
In this connection the health officer pays
his respects to the city physician OF the
Western district Outside OF the fact, he
says, that the city pays for something IL
does NOT get. it IS a matter of iphumanity 60
know that people are dying for the lack
Of medical attention without knowing the
reason why. The health officer prefaces his
reference 10 the city physician with the re-
mark that IL may not be policy for
him to state the facts, but as 1t
comes in hts line Of duty he does 1t In the
following language: "The poor sick Of the
Western district have never received proper
medical attention. In the frat
place the district is too
large, and in the second place the mourn
bent in office never has attended to his work
properly. 1t is a physical impossibility for
a man TO be at two places at the same time.
The physician for the Western district has
his office for city patients on Jefferson and
Liberty streets; his residence Ia on Henry,
near the Laurel Grove cemetery, distance
of over q mile. and well removed from
his city patients. His Office hours are
one in the morning, and one In the after
noon. He will not, or has not, on his own
statement, attended a city patient calling
on him at his private residence. According
to his office hours and his own statement II
a person, too poor to pay for medical serv-
Toes, wishesto obtain the services Of the ply
sician of the Western district, be cannot do
SO at any time during the night, as the city
physician for the Western district does not
attend 10 such calls at his private resi-
dence.n
The health officer recommends that the
city physicians SD ould be compelled to reside
ia their districts and should have their
residence and Office centrally located there.
MI 49, ,tN1A H..
should be of suoh duration as 10 enable all
persons needing their services 30 obtain
them.
The health officer gives out the first
official history Of the smallpox that existed
in tne city during the early part of last
winter. In all, according to the health off,
GERS report, there were "A cases of the dis
ease in the city, white and 40 col
pred OF which there was d
1eaths among colored. Two negroes were
'ound dead and seven were nearly so when
having been sick for days before
any attention. The disease was
,onfined mostly to the northeastern part of
,he city. The exceptions were Mill street,
Charlton stress lane, between Whitaker
aud Barnard, and Henry street.
There were two cases taken from
The settlement known as Southville
In the efforts TO stamp out the disease the
health officer estimates that $4,000 people
were vaccinatsd. Among the colored people
the health authorities bad great difficulty
In finding the cases. One young oolored
girl was concealed while sick and after
death her body was taken out and thrown
into shallow pie by the
side of the road east OF the
city. Her body was mostly eaten up by
the buxzards and what was left was burned.
Finding thew were unable to conoeal their
siok In the city many colored people moved
them into the country. The disease devel-
oped in the country aud finally spread into
Bryan county, where it prevailed to some
extent, there being no organized effort to
stop the disease.