Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-12-24
SANITARY ASSOCIATION,
Its Second Annual Meeting Held
Friday at Rutland.

Notable Papers on The Menace or
soho"l Buildings, Typhoid Fever I'm
W'nooski, ana Sewerage in Small
Towns.
Inc second annual meeting of the Yer
mont State Sanitary association was held
at Rutland last Friday. An encouraging
feature of the meeting was the popular in
terest excited in public sanitation. About
IUO persons joined the association.
II. l.. Stillson of Bennington read an
able paper on "The Menace of the School
Building" He handled the subject in a
very interesting manner and made a strong
plea for proper ventilation in our school
rooms, many Of which he characterized as
death traps" In the discussion which
followed DR., Q. S, Caverly spoke in regard
to ventilation, sewerage and light He
SAID the great ma jority of Vermont school
houses were planned with no regard to
these three important elements and that
not one in 100 was properly ventilated.
The following officers were elected
President, H. L. Stillson of Bennington;
vice pr sident, Prof. A. P. Grinnell of Bur
lngton. The executive council, consisting
OF one for each county, is as follows: Add,
son, DR.. d. G. Noble of Middlebury; Ber-
nington, DR.. Lyman Rogers of Bennington;
Caledonia, DR.. w. j. Aldrich of St. Johns
bury; Chittenden, H. NJ. Mcintosh of Bur
lington; Essex, DR.. r. T. johnson of Con-
cord; Franklin and Grand Isle, DR.. j. N.
JENNIE of st. Adams; Lamoille, DR.. G. c.
kublee of Morrisville Orange, DR.. j. H.
Jones of Bradford; Orleans, DR.. j. NJ. Cur
rier of Newport; Rutland, DR.. w. NJ.
Stearns of Rutland; Washington, DR.. j. H.
jackson of Barre; Windham, DR.. f. s. AL.
bee of Bellows Falls; Windsor, DR.. w. NJ.
Bryant of Ludlow.
At the public meeting in the evening
Col. Waring, head of the New York street
cleaning department, spoke about sewer
age in the small towns. Among some of
the things he said were: What do we call
seweragel 1t consists of 99S parts of pure
water, one part of mineral matter and one
part of organic matter. All the trouble
comes from the latter through the decom-
position of only one part in 1000 1.-THE re-
fuse from our houses. The waste from
kitchen sinks is as dangerous as the waste
from the closets.
The Investigations of the Massachusetts
state board of health at Lawrence have
demonstrated that it is necessary to bring
sewerage in contact with atmospheric air
% OnlN ny O8ludllOn Ndl VIC keJ VI InlS
dangerous organic matter. Foul sew erage
passing through dripping tank so as to be
exposed to the air becomes harmless. 1t
matters little how this is brought about,
the flirting of a pan of dish water will do
it, provided it is not always thrown out on
the same spot on the ground. The work
of destruction is carried on by a mass of
bacteria, which can live only in the air"
DR.. o. W. Peck of Winooski in his paper
on Typhoid Fever in Winooski" said, in
part: The first serious typhoid epidemic
we have had for a long time was in 1894.
The town is supplied with water by res
| ervor The water company in case of fire
| or dry season has pumped water from the
Winooski river into the aqueduct. The
| Fort Ethan Allen camp is above this point
on the river, and on investigation we dis
covered that the soldiers stationed there
| had brought three or four cases of typhoid
| fever from Chicago. The sewerage of the
camp empties into the river, and our theory
is that in this way water pumped into the
reservoir contained germs of disease. We
had another typhoid fever epidemic last
| October. There were 40 cases reported
and two proved fatal. On investigation it
was found that the cases vera on the line
| of certain milk route We traced the
disease back to a we'll contaminated by
| drainage from a cesspool. We sent sam
pies of the water to the state experiment
station, but the examination did not go to
the extent of determining the nature of the
disease germs. think that the state should
afford facilities for this kind of examination
in the interest of the public health. A
member of the state board of health lcok ed
over our management of the epidemic and
approved our course But / think there il
always antagonism among people when
local officers attempt to enforce health reg
ulations."
The general discussion that followed
this address was led by Prof. A. P. Grin
nell of Burlington. He deplored the fact
that the powers and the funds at the dis
posal of the state health board were moi
adequate to the work which the state has
set for the board to do. They are also ham
pered by the fact that there is no expert
ment station that has department devoted
| to the examination of wal ers containing
bacteria Practitioners cannot all equiv
themselves for these special analyses and il
is in the province of the state, he thought
to help the officers in this matter.
DR.. II. A Crandall of Burlington, DR.
H. d. Hoton of Brattleboro, DR.. o. W
Sherman of Woodstock, DR.. C. S. Caverl!
of Rutland and Prof. j. II. Linsley of Bur
lington continued the discussion.
Many Deer at Plymouth.
| .o.,.,, Co.. Iaar :,