The morning times., 1896-11-02
ALL EAT QU|N|NE
Continued from First Page.
the wards of the nation and city in these
institutions.

the wards of the nation and city in these
| institutions.
Last years report shows that there
were treated in the asylum 74T patients.
| OF these 2US were from the District uf
Columbia. 13 I from Maryland, q nd II from
Virginia, or over 500 from this immediate
vicinity. The deaths mt the hospital We're
very few, and generally speaking there are
| no deaths from malariai fever uncompi'-
| Gated with other diseases. These cases
are not classified in the report with refer
ence to malaIial disease. There is, how
ever, another way of getting at the preva-
lence OF the malaria.
Supt. Stoutenburgii said that the requisI-
| ton for quinine amounted to from thirty To
! forty ounces per month, which was largely
consumed i'll the nalariai or autumn months,
| Here arc nearly 500 patients, most or
whom 90 not go to the hospital with
malarial affections, but who. from tEeir
necessities, are obliged to live. il they
want to be cured of any disease, in an
atmosphere i'll which ten To one, they Will
contract an addit ional disease.
REASONABLE EXPLA AVIATION.
Supt. Stoutenburgh offered a very rea-
sonable explanation OF the increase in the
disease this year and possibly OF the un
usual degree of the fever referred to by Dr
Shute, attending physician at the Jail. Mr..
Stoutenburgh said that the condition of
the sewers was the cause, III his opinion.
Not that the sewers are badly constructed, or
that attention was not given to them by
the city authorities, but because 1t had been
a dry summer. In rainy seasons the sewers
are flushed out naturally and their con
sequent cleanly condition reduces the
chances for contracting this fever.
This year tie dry season has, therefore,
been against the patients. and of all the
residents OF the southeastern district. This
opinion Of Mr.. Stoutcnburgh was referred
TO Dr. Shute and he fully conceded with its
conclusions.
1t would also he n fair inference that
heavy autumn rains would go far to purify
ing the flats themselves, although only for
one season. Any unusual water force in the
Eastern Branch would carry Off the un-
told tons of dangerous disease-hreedinG
drift, which in normal tides is but little
| affected. 1t goes and comes back. but
most Of it is nnbedded in the ooze OF the
muddy soil.
ALL QUININE EATERS.
There is no need OF actual statistics for
| this asylum. All of the inmates are
evidently quinine eaters, for GER ainly the
thirty or forty ounces per month are not
issued as "a matter oil sentiment and trad-
ton.
| 1t may be said that the inmates OF the
asylum are not all from the immediate VI
entity of the institution or within the
fever belt. This is true, for they say there
| that patients already inoculatedare brought
| from Georgetown and other sections within
| the city limits. The fact remains that pa
tients who have a particular disease not
nialarial are transferred often fron dis
| triCt safe from malaria to i hoSpital where
| they will be pretty sure to get another dis
| ease aS a diploma from the government for
| attending its school OF medicine.
| II is not unlikely that>thc reports of all
these institutions for SS6-@7 Will be Il
record breaker. This season, according
| TO the present conditions, there has been
| more than the usual opportunity Of inhalinS
the governmental malaria. Its about this
| time of the year that the rolls of the hospi-
tails, jails and asylums are largest.
AN OBJECT LESSON.
| Only last year there was an object
lesson which bears on the subject of the
location of hospitals. There was an agi-
tation about the purchase of place for
hospital for contagious diseases. Theladies
who were actively interested in the scheme,
| and also the members Of Congress. took into
| consideration not OILY th eXpens OF such IN
! Institution but had great regard to the To-
Cality with reference TO its health. This
common sense view OF the selection of
place for a hospital or Jail or asylum seems
10 have been entirely ignored when the
| fathers We're building the Washington jail
| ana its hospitals ana warehouses;.
| II is perhaps true that land in that neigh
| horhuod was as cheap then as the consid-
eraticn for the comfort OF the future in-
| mates uf the places. Ifthese places are to
| remain where they areindcfinitcIy il would
| not lake much mathematics to show that
the cost of extra wardens of the Jail and
! several tons of quiuinc would have paid
| long ago for sites for hospitals and Ials
| which are not every autumn in the grip
| the malarial miCrobc. Certainly the
saving in those two items would have paid
| the difference between good lands and
| fever infested sites.