The Newtown bee., 1892-05-27
Do Peddlers Disseminate Disease?


 Some few weeks ago, half dozen pack peddlers, hailing from the city of New York, thoroughly covered that sec- tion of Connecticut in the vicinity of the town of Canterbury. These vendors forced their way into houses and, open ing their packs, displayed their cheap wares for the women to buy. They were generally successful, because the women bought to get rid of them. Two weeks after this invasion, the com- munity was startled by an outbreak of scarlet fever and diphtheria. It was as- certained, in the investigation into the cause of the epidemic, that the sickness was confined to those houses in which the peddlers undid their packs. Deaths have already occurred and the scourge is spreading. A newspaper dispatch from Canterbury says that ''in no family where peddlers failed to get into the house has either disease appeared. It is the general opinion of physicians who are attending the sick that the seeds of the disease were spread by the peddlers and SdulC HUH OhClA hiChy PoShos
 The Philadelphia Item says: Physici- ans and sanitarians have for long time entertained the suspicion that the ped- dler and his pack are dangerous and fruitful sources of disseminating con- tagious diseases, such as levers, small pox and diphtheria. More than once, the attention of the medical frateI nifty and health officials has been directed to this suspected channel of contagion. Heretofore the proofs have been lacking, although it was reasonably certain that they existed.
 We have now the proofs furnished us that such is really the fact.
 What pointed warning for mothers with tender children under their care 1! It is tolerably well known that these in- dustrious peddlers, when at home in the cities, lodge in the slums, or in quarters which are given up wholly to the invad- ing army of foreigners who come to us empty in hand and pocket. Our readers do not have to be told how these miser- able people huddle together like sheep, two or three families promiscuously in a room that filth and uncleanliness abound as it has been too often described. It is these quarters which are perpetual menace to the health of cities and give the health authorities the gravest concern. Three they sleep in crowded rooms without ventilation and in poison ed atmospheres. They live upon un- wholesome fnnI nd In falls for contagious diseases.
 It is from these shambles reeking with filth, disease and ofttimes with vermin that peddlers in most cases go forth in the morning on their days tramp, scat tering over city and country, pushing their way into houses in their eagerness to make a sale.
 How easy for them to carry the seeds of disease, and particularly of diphtheria and scarlet fever, the enemies of child hood? In the case of the typhus fever outbreak in New York, it has been estab- lished that that disease was carried from an infected lodging house to other places. Women should be extremely careful about receiving peddler's pack into their houses, and particularly if he be a dirty specimen of his class. He may have slept the last night in crowded house in which there were cases of scarlet fever or diphtheria, and the mi. crobes may be in his clothes or pack. It will be found far cheaper in the end , to buy goods of a reputable dealer, even if the great inducement of bargain is not always thrown int Berlin, Conn. News