New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1897-11-24
Brac,lk!i,!e'|nlt, 5
Advice.
The Secretary Of the State Board Of Health
Reports on His Visit to New Ulm.

The Secretary Of the State Board Of Health
Reports on His Visit to New Ulm.
Many Valuable Suggestions offered il His
Letter to the Local Board.
During the week, Dr.. Strickler, the
local health officer, received a lengthy.
letter from DR.. Bracken, secretary Of the
state hoard Of health, commenting on
the sanitary conditioned New Ulm as
he beheld it in his recent visit, and offer
ing valuable suggestions for our guild
ance in the future. (. -s.s
The city is congratulated in the first
place on having an excellent hospital,
but the attention of the public is called
to the need of a place tor isolation in
case of infectious diseases. Especially is
this necessary, he says, where there is a
school depending upon the surrounding
country for patronage, such as the par
ochlal school of this city. It would
seem, he adds, that the city could, with
but very little expense, establish an iso-
lation ward near the present hospital and
arrange to operate it in connection with
the latter. Such an institution would
undoubtedly he source of economy,
rather than of expense, IN very few
years. Those, who have to be quaran-
tined and cared for by the city, can be
cared for at far less expense in such a
place than in detached houses, while to
the larochial school it would also be a
source of great economy from the fact
that, with it, isolation could be easily and
promptly accomplished, thus saving the
general decentralization that occurs in a
school where scarlet fever or diphtheria
make their appearance. --... -
Commenting on the city's water, the
Doctor says: With such an excellent
city supply at your command, and
with shallow wells, no sewerage
system anu typhoid fever in your midst,
there is but one thing to urge upon your
citizens, viz, the discontinuance of the
use of surface we'll water and the gener-
al use of the city supply. The import
ance of this is emphasized at present by
the fact TINT typhoid fever IS not occur
ringamo, :, those who use only city water.
He also goes into the sewerage ques-
ton, remarking: The time is not far
off when you will have to put in sys-
tenn of sewers, at least for the business
portion of your city. The disposal Ut
sewage through sewers into the river
would probably suggest itself to your
City Council, and yet doubt very much
the wisdom of this; first, because the riv-
er is too small to serve as a carrier for
sewage, and second, because there is a
law against the pollution of streams.
While this law is quite generally ig-
nored, the time is coming when it will
have to be enforced. 1t is probably a
matter Of economy, therefore, for city,
about to put in sewers, to consider other
methods of disposal of sewage than in
to streams. In the meantime, 1t Would
be wise to point out to some OF your
citizens their present faulty methods OF
constructing vaults and cesspools.
Vaults should not be too deep and should
be so constructed as to he easily cleaned.
Cesspools should be water-tight. 1t
would then be possible to pump out
their contents at proper intervals. Not
only this, but there would be less dan
ger of injecting wells and also of Great
ing a general nuisance, as now exists in
the rear of some of your business blocks.
His comments and suggestions on the
meat supply for city like New ulm
are equally interesting. II is beyond
DISPUTE, he remarks, that the best cattle
throughout the country go to our large
packing houses for slaughter, and with
this fact before us, it must be plain to
every one that the poorer grades OF cat,
tie are disposed of at the smaller slaught-
er houses. As a sequel Of these two
conditions, the people of Minnesota are
~ . a. = . ~ - vs. u, I \
quite generally eating the poorer grades
of meat. Not only this, but the animals
suffering from disease, that cannot pass
inspection at the great packing houses,
are unloaded upon the home market
through small slaughter houses. It rs y to
the financial interest Of all conscientious IS
meat men to suppress the sale OF this
low grade meat. From sanitary point
Of view, there is no question as to the
llmnortance Of stopping this trade In the