Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-12-24
TYPHOID FEVER.

\ Tucson has been singular y free iron 1 epidemics notwithstanding its unsanIta
 ry conditions, but how long are We t
 enjoy sucd blessed immunity with q sc. kreeking with the filth Of cent2ries unGe our feet and under the very bones il
 which We live, for there is not a foo
 of sewerage in the town. O5ber ciie 1 nave ueen plague swept with ccLdIti0n less favo. abis to disease than have b5s, 1 of, red IF Tuc5on for tbe past two hua
 dred years, still we coalinue to fiy in th
 face of Providence and oo Hoth ng. IT., I cites of New York. Philadelphia, Bal 1 Gimore, Cincinnati aud St. Louis ar: battling with typhoid fever which no5h l ing but the severe cold of the prCseI
 winter can check. IT it comes westwaTo along the line of travel how are We |, avoid it as the elements are against ul for its suppression.
 The cause and spread of typhoid doe: not, says the Engineering Record, de peud solely upon the ground water level nor are they so easily explainable as ii WAS hoped lh5y would be when the dis oovery of the specific bacillus was an. nounced. Bacteriologjs.s are now some l wha. doubtful as to whether this specific germ Is a single form. or group ol ! forms and they are not sUre toat enc or 1 more Of the forms of bacteria commonly iould in the ilt 5stiRal canal and its ex- creia may not ulCes certain c.Icum- stances develop lBto a form capable O. producing typbOid, although they think this improbable. e. The typhoid baeill. can i've for t laast five months in excre- ta CT in soil, and IL the leup2ratu-e De sufficiently high ard n certain amouut CT moisture be present, with Gead Or gsnish matter to furnish focd, they ma multiply and form colonies, which the next rain vii wash into the surface streams O. in-o tha g,ound water. Sc long as the sol or material in which they are growing is so moist as to 6e in- capable cf producing dus-. SO lo-g the
 
 typhod germs cGnEOt pass into tb ar for air currents cannot remove then from moist surfaces; but wien sol confirming them IS 70 dry ss to g.v- O. dust tJ currents of ar, the b9cihl .C- ierent to the Tarticies. thus scattered Jill go Ai.h them.
 IH an open running sir an with large fiOw Of water, thc typhoid baci iH
 p.ear to lose their specific movers. in most cases, after a lJw O, from 10 10 F miles, but waetaer th.s Is due to an ac tlal at;eauarion O. the,r virulcnco or merely to the dilution is rot cartain. T Is probable that t requires the entrance of a csraiD number Of the bacih into the intes' inal caral 10 produce tha di- sease, the number required T,i1g with the individIal, and hence that it Is ne cessaTy thst glass of water, for ms tanca, sball CoItain a certain nun ger ID order 70 p:oiuce the dIssase. Hence 6'so, the effects of long-continued drought in diminishing the volume of water in s,reams my at times be an i'm portant factor in tha spread of typhoid 0y increasing the concentration Of the poison.
 In considering the circumstances of au outbreak of typhoid fever in a part cular locality 1t is o:tsn much more diff icult to explain why there are So few cases than why there are So many. The specific bacillus itself can very rarely be foanl and identified ia he water or milk suspecse1, and only a small per ceutage Oi those using the suspected fluid may have been taken i'll. To some extent this Is no doubt due to the fact that one attack of the disease usually confers immunity against subsequent attacks, and considerable proportIon of adults in many towns ond cities have thus acquired immunity.
 TG engine rs the important facts about typhoid are that it is often spread through water supplies thus contami hated with hu-oa1 excreta. that water supplies thus contaminated are always dangerous, that long thoughts tend to increase the danger of such c0utamina- ton through both ground water and surface streams, and that the best wsy Of avoiding this danger js to so dispose oI al sewerage as to be sure hat 1t shall be thoroughly oxidized and deconpysed and is peculior bactera destroyed be- fore it iz allowed tu gaia admission to' either soil or surface vaser that con pos sibly be used for drinking purposes.