The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-12-07
LAST EDITION
4:s5 O'CLOCK,
TEN CASES.
Typhoid Fever on the
East Side.
Thought to Be Due From the
Milk Furnished.
The Milkman is Also Sick With
the Fever.

There is typboied fever in eight families
on the East Side and one on the West
Side, aud the same milkman supplies
them with the lscteal fluid. That milk
man is sick with typhoid fever, being
stricken about the same time as his GUS
toners, the last of November. He has
no cows of his own but buys his milk of
two Johnston farmers, in the family of
one of whom there is, or was until re-
Gently, typhoid fever also. The Inference
is that the fover travelled from the Johns
ton farmers hc,ne in the milk cans TO the
families afflicted, and that is what DIR.
Gardner Il. Swarts of the State Board OF
Health Is investigating today. He doesn't
say as yet tnat ii is so, but IL looks like
1t. The cases were reported to him yes
terday by Dr. Chaplin, the local superin-
tendent OF health, who considered the mat
ter beyond his jurisdiction because the
farmer in whose home the sickness was
lives outside of the city. In conversation
with The NEWS reporter today DIR.
Chaplin stated that during the past six
weeks 29Nyphoid fever cases have been
reported to him, As against 21 for the
corresponding period last year. OF these
13 were on the East Side and the eight
above mentioned are within radius of q
quarter x a mile of the river and within
the district bounded by Lloyd, ,NorthNIain,
Waterman and Brook streets, two being
on Brook street. The case referred to on
the West side is on Valley street. The milk
dealer who supplied these inc fam lilies Is
named Arnold, but he is not believed to
have known anything about the Danger
OF handling milk which came from the
Johnston farm, as he used IL himself and
is now sick. He obtains his supplies
from farmers Harris and Littlefield ana
1t is on the Harris farm where the sick
ness was.
DIR. Swarts was interviewed and said
that all he could say was that the
mat Tor toA I'D oaL ka d.
investigating. Ii Is not unlikely, he says,
that the sickness could be transmii ted
from some other source. such as diseased
cows, contaminated water supplies or
sewerage matter in the water with which
the milkmen watered their milk-if they
did. All ne knows is that there is the
sickness and the families received their
milk from common dealer. In addi-
tion to the cases mentioned, Mr.. Chaplin
received yesterday the reports of the
death OF two persons from typhoid fever.
These cases had not been reported before
as they should have been. One occurred
at the Rhode Island Hospital and the
other at ST. Joseph's Hospital. One OF
the patients lived on Benefit street and
the other on Sheldon street, and while IL Is
not known whether they partook of the
same milk as those named, il is not i'm.
probable. As for their cases not being
reported, DIR. Chaplin says nothing can
be done about 1t, pre- blDiy, as the ply
sicians who first treated them naturally
expected the hospital authorities to report
them, which Is usually the case. As for
the milkmen who sold the milk, the
doctor says, nothing will probably be
done to them, as the law says that the
spreading of contagious diseases must be
wilful to be punishahle.
DIR. Swarts says the danger is great
where dealers collect their milk from
various sources and mix the supplies. The
only way il can be avoided would be to
have law making il compulsory for
each milk producer to make returns as to
cows, etc, and have them properly in
spected, and for the dealer TO furnish
the department with all available infor-
nation. Then when anything like this
happens, the matter can he Immediately
traced 10 its source ana the dealer saved
tn loss OF his customers, while the pub
lie heali h could he conserved. liz IS un-
derstood that Farmer Harris and his wife
were both sick with typhoid and have
but just done ''peeling."