The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-29
LITTLE OLD-TIME AGUE NOW.
The ChiIIs and Fever of Other Days
Almost Unhenrd of.

From the Kansas City CMo) Star.
The old-time chills are no more, and the
ague has almost DISAPPEARED. There are a
few places in the south where 1t is still the
custom, but 1t very seldom crosses Mason
and Dixon's line now. At present DIR. G.
0. coffin, city physician, Is treating two
cases of real old-time fever and ague, but
they are the first he has seen In Kansas
city in ten years. he says.
Dr. d. Il. Porter, who came here from
Ohio thirty years ego and has been mere
ever since says he has not seen case OF
old-ume chills and fever in five years. DR..
Coffin says IL is because OF the improved
sanitary conditions. DR.. Porter says it IS
because people drink better water.
In the early days DR.. Porter said three
fourths of his income came from ague pa
tents Doctors grow rich treating mala-
rial poison. The favorite and principal
prescription then was, "Quinine, ~
grains" in as many variations as the doc
tors education and medical dictionary
could coniure for him disguised and high
sounding terms to substitute for the word
ouinine And when both ran short, or the
patients found it out and went to prescrib-
ing for themselves, 1t was an easy matter
for the doctor and the druggist TO get to-
gether behind the prescription case ana
agree upon something new and cryptic
gramatic But now quinine IS SELDOM
used here.
people in the early days charged the
chiIls to the decaying vegetation Of the
autumn and TO the fall turning up of
the new sod with the breaking plow,
said DR.. Porter. THE fact Is, the trou-
BILE Law In the water they drank. They
drank branch or creek water, poor well
water. and water from ponds. 1t came IN
the fan of the year because II could cas-
lest vandush the system when the sys-
tenn was weakened by the continued heat
az the summer The water people drank
was stagnant. Creeks and wells and pond
were halt dry, and there was no other
water. The river water we drink to-day
comes from no stagnant creek or pond,
II Is from an open, running stream, and
that Furnished the healthest water that
there u.s. OF course, improved sanitation
IN CITY and country has much TO do with
It. as it has with improved health gencr-
allv IL Is not too much to say that ~
the ague days doctors grew wealthy treat
ms, II almost alone. ! wrote in those times
dftv prescriptions for quinine 90 one fol
any other drug. Now quinine - seldom
mentioned in a prescription.
The Jackson County Medical Society
TOOK m this matter of the disappearance
of ague at a recent meeting, and discuss
ed n AZ length 1t reached the conclusions
that are Teclitu dbDNts tPhA ~ 49, -
a pessimist-or an optimist; il depends OF
whether you look at it from the point Of
view of the doctors or of the laity-foi
he believes that sickness Of all kinds i
disappearing.
"People live longer than they did, anC
are healthier" he says. There are sew
eral reasons for this. People know mor'
about the rules Of health and Of physica
well-being and well-keeping than thei
fathers and mothers did; sanitary science
has advanced, and the great thing Is, PEG
pie nowadays are better clad, they ca
! better food and they drink better water
Economy. Fanny: Is Edith economi
cal?
Burnotte: ! should say So Why, sh
spent nearly 500 Ia bargains last year.-
4 Br0wnins, King q Co.'S Acnthly.