St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-01-21
SANITARY.
A Lesson Not Learned.


general application:
The United States has just had sharply
instructive lesson as TO the fatal infec-
tiousness of typhoid fever, as it has de-
stroyed its victims in Paterson aud
Arlington, N. J., in which entire families
have been attacked, and in one household
three have died, and the remaining three
members have but small chance OF escap-
ing alive. The epidemic has besn thor
oughly Investigated and traced to sin
gle milk supply, where the cans were
washed in water taken from stream
into which typhoid infection was directly
deposited - members of the milkman's
family being i'll with the fever. 1t would
seem that, after years of writing and
printing on this subject and the boosted
general Intelligence of the people, such an
epidemic could not occur; but kno Wedge
alone is not enough; there must be eter-
nal, intelligent, instructed vigilance be-
sides. The history of epidemics that have
been diffused by milk infected with the
typhoid bacillus, and investigated by
highly accomplished psychologists and
health officers. within the last fifteen
years, would fill several stout volumes
and yet no year passes that the same
trouble does not break out in some fresh
quarter. Some of the greatest surprises
and curiosties OF sanitary literature
describe epidemics that at first blush
were mysterious, but keen investigation
has ended in pointing out exactly how
they had originated, always showing the
disease bringing forth "seed after it's
kind" and it is the peculiar toughuess
and resistant qualities of this seed, that
make it so difficult utterly to abolish ty-
phoid fever. There are many kinds OF
sewage that are destroyed by the action
Of light, air and water; but the tiny
bacillus OF typhoid can travel scores Of
miles in apparently clear water, and still
retain all its capacity for mischief; it can
be frozen nearly month and then, placed
in favorable circumstances, it can in
crease and multiply, and wo unto the
poor human creature into whose system
it finds its way. One delusive doctrine,
that has been held now for these twenty
years, and which had the authority of
great names to support it on both sides
of the water, has greatly hindered the in
auguratiou Of measures to abate its raw
ages, viz, that running streams deprive
it OF its virulence. DR.. Letheby appeared
before committee of Parliament and
testified to that effect about twenty
years ago, and that opinion is quoted in
full in the article, water" in one of our
most popular and widely distributed
Encyclopedias, while the falsity of the
doctrine has been disproved again and
again, not only by scientists, but by
practically following up the origins of
cases oil typhoid to their sources.
Everybody is now familiar with the
great visitation of typhoidin Maidstone,
England which is not yet at it's end, but
which has been in existence since the
arrival of the hop-pickers, in August,
some members OF whose families had
the disease, by whom the water supply
of the town was infected; but in some
ways it is surpassed by an epidemic that
has been going on in the town of Kings
Lynn since the first of October. A
writer in the London Times of December
I'd says:
Both visitations are due to the same
kind OF sanitary defect, and. so far, teach
the same lesson; but otherwise they
differ. The people of Maidstone erred
mainly through general ignorance, and
were taken by surprise; the people of
Lynn had plenty of enlightenment in
their midst, but deliberately chose the
darkness, and would prefer it now if they
had their way. The dangerous condition
of the town has been publicly known for
years, and what has happened is only
what was expected by every one in and
out of the place who has kept an eye on
sanitary questions in this country. The
present outbreak was accurately foretold
by intelligent observers on the spot a
fortnight before it occurred"
For pure obstinacy and cantankerous
prejudice, the history of this town can
not be surpassed in all the annals of OBJ
structive ignorance; for there was a
severe epidemic in it in 1892, which
was investigated by DR.. Bruce Low, and
none but men resolved to be "of the same
opinion STILL" would have resisted the
conviction that, whatever else was neg
lected. the town ought to have pure
water supply, Tor then, as now, the inn
partial distribution OF cases throughout
the town could be accounted for on no
other theory. The writer in The Times
describes fully the source of water supply
for town Of 20 900 inhabitants, tiny
brook with houses and farmyards and
cesspools ranged all along its banks,
finally impounded in two tanks having
an area of 200 yards, and filtered through
two feet of gravel. The interspaces be-
tween the particles ofthe finest sand form
broad and high galleries to the typhoid
bacillus, and not till filters have acquired
an almost gelatinous coating at the top
are they to be considered typhoid. proof;
but the people of this town seem intoxi-
Gated by kind Of tatuous ignorance, for
many of them will not boil the water
now, nor buy that which is brought to
their doors in carts, and which is known
to be pure; and one man. to clnch his
faith, has placed in his window glass
Jar bearing this legend, Lynn water.
Drawn direct from the tap October 30th.
None better can be-" Sanitarians have
asserted with wearisome iteration that
water that is most sparkling and bright"
is often the home of the typhoid bacillus,
which must be magni6ed 800 times be-
fore the eve of the expert can detect it.
Medieval darkness seems to inshroud the
rate PAYERS Of this town. They are vic
Tins of the vaccination delusion, and
have made every effort to conceal cases
in the present visitation and suppress
information, and the facts reportedin The
Times were obtained from one physician,
who, as a medical officer to the Free
bridge Union, had attended many cases,
and dared to report what he saw and