Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-08-10
A HEALTH RESORT.
WHEELINGS REMARKABLE IMMUNITY FROM
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
Although the Weather Has Been Warmer Than
For Five Years. the Doctors
HaveNOthing 70 Do.

Wheeling presents remarkable
anamoly these days.
With the weather the past month at
a higher notch than for five years past
and with dog days full upon US, the
doctors are living life Of elegant
leisure, cobwebs are being woven over
the mouth of the druggists morter, and
the grave diggers' tools are rusting from
sheer inactivity.
People in ali these lines of occupation
are complaining of having nothing 10
do, while the population at large Is en-
loving a remarkable immunity from
disease, and men go about their avoca-
tions with the mercury at % degrees,
with never fear of suEstroke or pros
tration. In fact there has been but one
man overcome by the heat within the
limits of the city this year, and In that
case there were cir ;umstances which
went far towards an explanation or how
it came about.
No less striking, as the REGISTER has
already pointed out, is the freedom OF
the people from the long list OF diseases
deemed to be inseperaole from midsum-
mer. Diseases of the stomach and
bowels are astonishingly infrequent,
there is no typhoid fever, beyond the
occasional case to be met with In every
community, at all seasons, and children
and the aged alike, usually quick TO
succumb under the depressing influences
of great and prolonged heat, are enjoy
ing life with a zest which could not be,
greater if cemeteries were unknown
and dispensers OF drugs and those
yersed in the arts Of Esculapius and
Galen did not have a living to make.
The city was never in a more healthy
condition, and it is particularly gratity-
ing that it is so, when one notes the
great and often abnormal mortality as
shown by the vital statistics Of other
cities and towns during the present
summer.
An examination Of the record OF
Health Officer Spragg shows a total OF
but 60 deaths during the month OF July,
as against OF 10 July, 1891, and 50 In
July, 1890. This is a decrease OF 25 as
compared with last year, and OF IL as
compared with the year before, although
both July, 1890. and July, 1891, were
neticeaby cooler than the month just
passed. So also OF August. In August,
1890, there were As deaths in Wheeling,
and in August, 1891, 50 deaths. The
first nine days Of the present month
showed but deaths, or an average OF
but one per day, at which rate there
would be but 81 in the whole Of the
present month. The quarter ending
June 30 1892, also shows about GO
deaths less than the corresponding
quarter last year. This is splendid
showing, and stamps Wheeling this
wear as one OF the healthest cities on
the continent.
When asked as to what cause he as
cribed this unusual state of affairs, DR..
Spragg said:
81 don't know that any especial rea-
son can be assigned, beyond that the
city is in good sanitary condition, that
the general conditions are favorable,
and that the people are taking care OF
themselves. 1t is fact that the doc
tors are doing no business. don't be-
lieve there is a physician in town who
is more than earning expenses this sum-
mer."
Another physician corroberated all
that DIR. Spragg had said, and added
that In his estimation, the fact that
many families filtered and boiled the
water used for potable purposes, and
used Wheeling ice made from pure water
had something to do with it. There was
also better general observance of the
laws OF health. al" said he, people
will clothe themselves properly, avoid
undue exertiop, keep out Of the sun as
much as possible, filter and boil the wa
ter used for drinking and cooking, and
exercise moderation in eating and drink
ing, the dog days need have no, terrors
for them, aside from the purely physi-
cal discomforts inseperable from warm