The morning call., 1893-07-01
TYPHOID is KING.
The Fever Spreading in
Oakland.
CAUSES OF THE PLAGUE.
Diseased Milk, Bad Water and
Foul Sewerage.
EFFORTS TO CHECK THE SPREAD.
Diaries Guaranteed by the Board OF
Health and the Marshes Or
dered to Be Drained. -


eternity scores of men, women and chill
dren within the next few days, unless the
efforts of the Board Of Health result 10
checking the spread OF the disease HOW
serious is the situation and what nrnl
foothold the typhus has secured are shoWl
from the reports made to the board OF
Health of Oakland yesterday. Up to :
o'clock no less than 30 cases OF typhus, Id
its various forms. ;ne majority being OF
the most malignant type, namely typhold
fever, had been reported
So far there have only been five deaths
from the disease, but the physicians say
that twenty-five orseven fifty deaths may
be expected within the next day or TWO
the disease not having run long enough d.
vet in most cases to result fatally.
While there is no question but what tEe
epidemic was started by the diseased MILK
from two Contra Costa County diaries tne
RAPID spread of the fever has been greatly
facilitated by the impure drinking water
and the horrible condition OF sewers In
Oakland. That city is paying III sullelins
and with the lives of some Oh us oes1 clei-
zens and their children 1or years oi hes-
lect and political mlSrule.
Running through dairy ranch is ilt'Ie
creek. the waters OF which would natur-
aIlv run quite rapidly and empty them
selves into the overflow ditch leading from
the Contra Costa reservoir. The state
ment that the waters of this creek enter
into the water supply Of Oakland Is I'M
true, and fortunately, too, as the recent
analysis of the drinking water over there
shows il to be in a condition that needs n o
additions al poisoning to make it unhealthful
The waters of the creek on the dairy
farm are not allowed 10 follow the natural
water course uninterrupted, however, but
are held first by dam constructed so as to
feed the waters into a tank. aud from this
semi-stagnant pool and tank the cattle
have been watered. Out of 1S9 cases of
typhoid fever examined. 12S were of people
who had used the milk from these diaries.
The other sixty-one eases are scattered
among families which purchase milk from
twenty-six dlfferent diaries and from pri-
vate families keeping mich cows.
This condition of affairs led the Board
of Health to quarantine the diaries, and
when the sanitary officers went to the
owners, who, by the way, are only lessees
of the dairy grounds and cows, they found
them more than willing to submit to the
quarantine. They have done more than
was asked of them. for pending such time
as another ranch can be secured they ar
milking their COWS as usual, but THROWING
the milk into the creek. and after the,
have moved the cows on the new pastur
they will allow no milk to be used from
them for ten days, and at the expiration
of this time will only use the milk if
chemical analysis shows it TO be pure.
Having stopped the source of the dis
ease Mayor Pardee. the Board of Health
and the City Council, ali Non-Partisans
are at work trying to remedy the bat
sewerage and stop the spread of tn
scourge.
For four long years a half dozen SO
called sewers. but which are merely rottel
wooden boxes broken and leaking in score
of places, have been allowed to virtually
dump their contents On the marsh in w es
Oakland. The winds sweeping over thi.
marsh lave carried the seeds of diseas,
and death and scattered them broadcas
over the city. The people living in thu
section OF Oakland where they have co
tlnually breathed the poison from the
broken sewers are in exactly the condition
to take typhoid fever. and in locating the
cases of fever on the map of Oakland il
is found that the disease is spreading
rapidly in the section of town liable to in
lection from the sewage that has leaked
out of the rotten wooden boxes onto the
marsh instead of being carried in stone OF
iron pipes to the bay. The Kirham-stree
sewer. the sewers between Adeline and
Peralta and Nineteenth and Twenty
second streets are in the worst condition
but there are many other sewers almost al
bad. =
. 2 Yesterday the Non-partisan officers o
the city OF Oakland determined to do some
thing. The Superintendent of Streets wa
instructed to provide his force of men wit
gum boots and set them to work imme
diately digging bitches across the marsh t
the bay. As soon as the bitches are com
pleted fire-engines will be placed at wor
at the marsh, and the accumulated fit
that has leaked from the sewers during TIL
last four OR five years will be washed int
the bay. Then an effort will be made t
replace the decayed wooden boxes wit
iroDstone pipe.
When the men went to wcrk yesterda,
they I0uQQ ..lD6- Nitn Knee deep, While IN
stencil was something terrible. In speak
ing of the situation Yesterday. Mayo
Pardee. who was evidently terribly wor
ried. said: :. - :: -.
Two local papers are trying, for reasons bes
known to their managers, 10 make il appea
that the city OF Oakland is a pestilenlial place
and that 1t is as much as the eOf any ctize
is worth TO remain here. The two journals ar
also engaged in trying to MAKE it appear tina
the present city governments responsible TO
the state of affairs which is in existence in thi
city to-day. ...e.... Z.
Assuming that the city Is in the condition
claimed let us see whose fault 1t is that thi
state OF affairs does exist The present Gil,
government has been In office since the. frs
day OF last April, period of three months. Til
last administration was in office for two years
vet during all this time the Council never tool
one step toward providing cremafory for tn
destruction OF the garbage OF the.cty. Durn
these two years, too. there was no attemp
made to stop the dumping on the Sixteenth
street marsh, nor to render inoffeEsive the gar
bage already deposited thereon.
The Health Officer has investigated the mat
ter and has found that the starting point OF IN
present sudden Increase In the number OF fever
was In he milk supplied to certain people Ii
the city by a certain dairy.
The Health Officer found on investigating tn
matter that this dairy was supplied with wafe
from vile and contaminated spring. in which
the combined nastiness of a herd of cattle wa
allowed to tester. The wafer from this sprinl
was used, IL for no other purpose, to wash III
eena in which milk waa Supnlied IN The ma from