The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-08
The @essenger.
NNwATIONAND PUBLIC HEALTH
IN NORTH CAROLINA

IN NORTH CAROLINA
All North Carolina towns ought to
allow the excellent example of Fay
.<3fevflle and Lumberton. The Obser-
vr reports most favorable results from
ne three artesian wells recently bored
nj Fayetteville by Messrs. Wright and
Kuvitzky. The very best OF water was
xrured in abundance at a depth Of
,-Yy pure but of medicinal quality as Is
zen In the improvement OF those who
drank freely Of it. It is specially good
1r dyspepsia. A very marked increase
weight attended two gentlemen who
I'D used the water. LumbertOn Is ALSO
about to move in the very important
Hzfter Of securing pure drinking water,
xhe very wisest thing it ever did or can
ever do. It will have a system OF arte-
nan wells to give a full supply Oh IN
poSsoned, %unpolluted water to the pop
ulation of the town. Good water Will
s.- obtained, it is believed, at a depth
mot greater than from 100 to $50 feet.
Eumberton and Fayetteville are to be
congratulated upon the very wise thing
fhey have lone. The surest and safest
thing they could do or any town or
city could possibly do, is to provide In
abundance pure drinking water for its
weople. 1t is richer and better than a
discovery Of a Klondyke mine. 1t rs a
guarantee Of improved health, OF fewer
deaths, Of more comfort. There Is no
such thing as genuine assured health
while drinking poisoned water. MOI all
than all die in an epidemic of yellow
fever or static cholera. A family can
drink bad, polluted water and gradual
Hy become accustomed to it, as many
people become accustomed to heavy pO-
tations of strong drink, or to the use
OF morphine, beginning with a quarter
of d grain and rising gradually until
they take from twenty-five to
.thirty-five grains in a day. But bad
water is very deleteriOus all the same.
and every now and then one of the
drinkers Of poisoned water succumbs
to disease implanted by the water just
as the excessive drinker goes down at
last before the consuming a OF the
morphine eater succumbs and goes to
his place.
BY the way, the use of opium or NOR
phine is not only an insidiOus and dan
gnrDus habit, but is soul destroying.
Let US give two cases. Within six
years or so, a gentleman of rare
gifts, living in another state, came into
our private office to see us. 1t was in
the morning. While sitting chatting
Inc went to sleep twice in his chair. We
put him down as a slave OF opium.
Within four years a minister OF the
Gospel dropped in to see us. He talked
abou a matter of interest to himself,
and, to our great surprise, dropped into
Il nap of sleep. Upon waking with the
usua bright-eyed look we had no
ficed in confirmed opium eaters after a
brief sleep, we saw him a out what
we guessed to be a dose of his habit
ual medicine, swallow it, and did not
relapse into slumber before he left.
We do not doubt hat both of the per-
SONS referred to were victims of a ter
EibIe habit. We were shocked at the
minister n panied to see the accom-
plished gentleman named a sad victim
OF a bad habit, as We did not doubt.
Bad water is bad for the human sys-
lem. 1t may not kill all Or half that
drink it, but it kills gradually. We
mentioned that a family of six or eight
were all killed but one by drinking from
an oil poisoned we'll that had long been
disused.
Now let Fayetteville and Lumberton
set another good example that can no
fail to prove a great blessing to both
communities. Let them begin and
carry on to completion a scientifically
constructed system Of sewage reach
ing every household. Get a well quail
sfied sanitary engineer to begin the
Nork making a complete survey and
preparing a map by which the work is
TO be prosecuted.
Every English city, every northern
city every southern city that has Sc
cured the TWO cnleI, HFoSl heCeSo"iS
hesSings-pure water and SeWage@haS
been blessed at once with a very much
reduced death rate. We have been try
ing for twenty years to keep fairly post
ed in sanitary matters, reading reports
of health officers in cities as to benefits
srOm scientific sanitation, reading
scientific journals and sanitary month
lies. and we have yet to find one in
stance in which a great Improvement
In the public health and a marked re-
3uction in the mortuary reports did
not follow the introduction of pure
drinking water and the construction of
q thorough system of sewage.
BY the way, it is noticeable that