The San Francisco call., 1898-05-07

SACRAMENTO, May 6.-Mayor Land approves the course taken by The Cal in placing before the people the exact condition in relation to the woeful lack of sanitary precaution in this city Said Mayor Land to The Call core spondent this evening:
 T have felt for a long time the ne cessity of taking steps toward the pro- lection of our people against sickness which is sure to follow season as dry as this Street Commissioner Touhey is in hearty accord with my sentiments in this regard, and for the last two weeks he has been engaged in cleaning out the catch basins throughout the city. There are 2200 of these basins, and the accumulations in many of them would indicate that years have elapsed since they have been cleaned at all. We have now cleaned about 2000 of them, and in that number We have car ried away 1900 WagOnloads of refuse and sewage deposits. We have a city very difficult to drain, and before my administration is over I hope to insti- tute many improvements in this re- spect.
 But what is the use of our taking local precautions in sanitary matters as long as one of the largest institu- tions in the State is permitted to de- file our waters, by using the stream from which we obtain our drinking water as a dumping place for the sew age of 1000 or more men! l think we should take immediate steps toward the abatement of this perilous practice, particularly during this season, when the water will be very low.
 Mayor Land will, in all probability send a message to the Board of Trus- tees and Boa of Health next Mon- day night, calling their attention to the necessity of taking immediate steps in the direction indicated.
 Edwin F. Smith, for many years sec- retary of the State Board of Agricul- ture, and widely known throughout the State, has just recovered from very serious attack of typhoid fever. Last evening he sent the following commun- ication to the Evening Bee:
 To the Editor of the Bee-sir: One who has never felt the sting of pain knows not what effect of typhoid or maIariai fever knows noth- ing of its exhaustive and dangerous character. w6rth u a pound of cnre.| Is applicable at this time to our present drinking water system. Inento water; have drunk it in all shapes, and have felt that l was impregnable to its germ carrying danger but the conditions of the pres ent season are so materially different from all previous that with all the physical health and strength one could wish I picked up the germs of that long lingering malady, malarial fever which is nothing more than an overdose of poison that brings one 1t seens to the verge of death, but holds him back to suffer agonies that We cannot find short of the place Bob In gersoN says eXisteth not.
 denying that at the present there are more dahgerous eases oi t IeEeIs eAsIiis III IhIs Gily says that almost any citizen could locate from three 10 five eases within his acouafntanceshfp. which is a safe criterion that the statement Of a prominent physician made a few weeks since of there being over POO cases of fever in nfT
 The peculiar conditions of the season, owing to the unusual lack of rainfall, render 1t plain that action of some kind is necessary toward the improvement of our water supply before anything else is done in the way of city i'm provements. If those in charge of the affairs Of the city will but think of the jeopardy in which the thousands of innocent children at tending the public schools placed in the drinking of this now most impure water. they would be inhuman not to devise some method Of improvement and that should be done at once, otherwise during the present summer newly made graves will multiply, and the un- dertaking business will be a most prolific ven
 I know that the people are prone to charge one that attempts public communications with being interested in some way with the subject in hand All the interest have the health life.
 Those of you who. like myself, have drunk until within a few years past, the conta-ni- hating sewage that is now dumped in the rivers to contend with l wonder what the most learned @ authority that said running water puriies itself in a short distance would now say if he were to go up the American River and view the solid mass of sewage rolling lazily in large lots as 1t is dumped in the slug gish Rio de los Aemericanos?
 I predict that any change in system, If only to extend the water pipe above the Ameri- to our city, and do good in the end than the suppression of facts they stare us ing anything may do. to the Teople of the State. Let us bc-A if necessary our children life of the present generation, and give to us health and happiness in this beautiful city. of homes. EDWIN F. SMITH.
 At the present time there are many cases of fever in the city of Sacramen- to, and they are increasing daily. Most Of these are typhoid. Dr. Henderson, secretary of the State Board of Health, in speaking generally of the disease, said:
 Tn places where the supply of water is from rivers or wells all drinking water should be boiled and it is a wise precaution during an epidemic to have the milk scalded, as the prevalence of typhoid in London in 1873 was clearly traced to the contamination of the milk by the eXcreta of a man who had died Of typhoid on a milk farm. The period of incubation usually extends over two weeks. being preceded by loss or appetite, languor, headache, dizzi- ness and bleeding from the nose in many instances. From the tenth to the twelfth day the rash usually appears. It is very slight, and unless care is taken may be entirely overlooked. These spots are rose-colored, about the size of pins head, disappearing on pressure, but reappearing as soon as the pressure is removed. In favorable cases the fourth week finds change for the better The temperature falls, the symptoms are alleviated. the sleep becomes more natural and the appetite grows stronger.
 After the thirtieth day, in the ma 1or1ty or cases, no more spots appear, the fever is at an end, and the patient passes slowly into stage of convaIes- cence- In typhoid fever relapses are common. and dangerous complications, especially of the lungs, may ensue If the Liberation of the intestines pro- ceeds so far that they are perforated, death ensues almost invariably, and in all cases the mortality is high. The main chance of recovery depends upon careful and scientific nursing. under the direction of a skilled nhvsician"