Evening star., 1898-08-09
Typhoid at Camp AIger.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
1 note with great Interest the communica-
ton from DIR. Quick in a late issue of your
paper. May | add poifit or two to what
has been said? If bla1n6 is to be put on
the water supply of Cafhp Alger and the
soil there charged with being hotbed of
typhoid it. is well to look around for some
facts about the health bf this part of Fair
fax county in the past as well as the rec
ords of adjacent PLACES.
Alexandria, six miles below Washington
on the Potomac, is said to be noted for the
purity of its water supply, and is, so
think, about as free hfrurl typhoid as any
town in the tidewater district Cameron
run supplies Alexandria. with water the
Whole. capacity of that stream being divert
ed into its reservoirs. .t,
Now, Cameron run is fed directly and al
most exclusively by the small streams
which flow from the watershed about that
camp. Get over the next ridge and Acco-
tink takes the drainage into the Potomac.
But Cameron run depends for its water
tand Alexandria depends on Cameron rum
exclusively on the small streams flowing
right from the hills of Camp Alger.
Now, what | wish to call attention to is
that If, as has been said. the soldiers took
the fever from the saturated soil, why
should this saturated soil not have poisoned
the water supply at Alexandria in the past?
about typhoid as We think We do. For ex-
ample, that country lying between the Rap
pahannock and the James, commonly
known as Tidewater Virginia, is singularly
exempt from typhoid 1t Is an old-settled
country. one of the oldest in the state and
the water supply is no better than that of
FAIRFAX county, and the people depend on
springs, which should by this be contain
mated, and yet as | say, typhoid is rare
disease. If, as is supposed by some, ma
laria is antagonistic to typhoid, that may
account for the absence of the disease. AT
any rate any physician will testify to what
is said above. l believe that when the ar
mics were in the peninsula there was as
much typhoid as is now in Camp Alger
But is not this proof that the typhoid
travels with the camp?
With all this disease at Camp Alger,
there is not case of typhoid in the village
of Falls Church, and this village covers a
territory about one and one-half by two
and one-half miles. The dwellings are most
ly sequestered, as, for example, live on
a six-acre' place, and few sites have less
than half an acre. Each house has its own
Well, and as rule these wells are not
deep. Very few are artesian. The sinks
are simply outhouses, the dejecta falling
on the ground. and in many cases there are
evidences of carelessness both as to this
matter as well as to slops, which are
thrown carelessly near wells Yet this
fever typhoid) is not common. In one
case within two hundred yards of my dwell
ing the family obtains its water supply
from spring in depression, and for
more than a hundred years that spring has
been famous watering place for the neigh
borhood.
Still, 1 think of the family now residing
there, as well as those living there in past
generations-and this for certainly fifty
years backbone had had typhoid. am sure
should any sanitarian inspect this place of
which l write it's water supply would be
condemned outright.
l am much inclined to think the theory
of DR.. Elmer Lee, as expressed in MORN
ing paper. has reason in it. This gentle
man thinks that it is possible that typhoid
may be due simply to the collection in the
system of effete matter which is best wash
ed out via the kidneys by copious drafts
of water This is the theory of some close
observers as to the action of the water of
many mineral springS-thOse who go TO
these places drink qtiannties of water and
so flush these sewers of the body
One fact, i think, Is Commonly observed
most robust and vigoro,fs men drink freely
OF water. have never seen an active, en-
ergetic man who was not frequent drink
er. l suspect that the drinking may be in
sDme pnse way related to the good health of
So far as Camp Alger is concerned, I
should be much inclined to suspect the milk
supply. Not that typhoid germs lurk in
milk doubt this-biit was told only last
week that a. mlkman who carried milk to
the camp was seen washing his empty cans
IN shallow and filthy stream near the
gert JHNEs r HODGKIN-
rams church, Va, August 8, 1895