The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-13
Tm @essenger.
TYPHOID FEVER AND ITS CAUSE.

~ S0A
ries concerning typhoid fever and its
causes. We have noticed that it was
traced some times directly to polluted,
poisoned drinking water, which it has
been established most clearly is a chief
source in many instances of sickness
and death. We have seen this most
satisfactorily established in several
well tested localities. We remember
that a few years ago in New Jersey
there were many deaths in a village
whose water was the river. An exam
nation of the water revealed that it
was horribly polluted. The emptyings
of another town not far away and
above came down in the water supply
of the village referred to, but name
NOT now remembered. This is only one
Of the many Instance
Then again we have seen it III SAM
tary and medical journals that often
defective pipes produced typhoid fever.
Some few years 6 several deaths III
Chicago were traced to this cause. Re-
Gently in Charlotte several deaths and
IluCH StCh1ICSo HI tA%h 49,
caused by defects of pipes, if we are
rightly informed. Thirty years ago or
more, the prince Of Wales came very
near dying Of typhoid fever. 1t was
ascertained that it was caused by sew
or gas escaping into the room he occu-
pied.
We have known a great deal Of ty-
'-r~.;J 10 rrax,o;I in tho hill n011nfrxy
whore the water, we suppose, was
pure. In the fine county Of Warren
the late DR.. George Field attended six
ty-three eases on the plantation Of the
Hon.. M T. Hawkins, as he told us.
The surroundings all looked favorable
for health. The same water was drunk
that had been used through the years,
and continued to be drunk, and no
more epidemic of typhoid followed.
The movements Of typhoid fever are
mysterious, subtitle, unforeseen and Of
ten inevitable. That it is not caused
from malaria in the hill and mountain
countries is perhaps true. Up there it
ought not to be either a case of NAL
aria or mal-aqua, as both air n
water are held to be pure. It is re-
ported in the newspapers in the great
Vanderbilt palace near Asheville this
insidious, sneaking fever has found in
gress and Is making itself at home
without invitation or welcome.
In the Statesville Landmark our old
friend DR.. John F. Foard-we date
hook n11v frian1chin IN ifc houinnipoc
thirty-eight years-writes about mala-
ria and causes of fevers, and gives
this instructive statement of fact:
Soon after the late war twenty-one
men from Wilkes county attended fed
eral court at Salisbury n camped on
the ridge between the large Mccoy
mill pond and the town. On their re-
turn home seventeen of them soon died
of fever. Since then that pond has been
drained, the creek above and below
Strengthened, and thousands of acres
of the very best land put in success
full cultivation, which has greatly i'm
proved the health Of the town and sur
rounding country. These AND many
other cases prove that elevation is no
guarantee against those poisonous va
pors. Besides, the most obstinate and
fatal cases Of fever occur in the noun
tainS."
In confirmation Of the last remark
of our venerable friend, we state that a
young lady in this city with others,
visited the country beyond Charlotte,
in Henderson county, we think. They
were not far from the mountains and
boarded at a farm house. Just across
the county road lived the young mar
ried daughter of the host. She was
phoid fever. The young lady visited
her two or three times in her illness.
Upon returning home weeks after she
was aiken ill and Ia a foul or five
weeks spell Of the same fever. That
o as if it was an easily contagious
disease.
DR.. Foard is of the opinion that the
chief source of this fever in the hills
and mountains is falling trees in
streams causing overflow and decaying
timbers. We mentioned before that
we had noticed that typhoid fever
rance where the red clays were ex-
posed. We do not know, never heard,
that they could have n influence of
life so as to produce deadly sickness.
But it is no doubt true that where
water may be good this fever kills
many in the hill country. We make
one more quotation from DR.. Foard
that is suggestive at least. He says
that in the decade between 1910 and
1850, many thousands Of lives. were
thus p~rematurely sacrificed annually
in that section between Charlotte and
Greensboro, where health and happi-
ness had previously reigned. Some Of
the counties employed from twenty to
thirty physicians each constantly, and
they using one to three horses to do
their riding" If we had to suggest a
cause for the typhoid fever hat oc-
ours in Wilmington or at the sounds,