The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-04-29
HOW TO PREVENT TYPOID
FEVE IN DISTRICTS.

I'i' it'tl IS llle plaSnc OF tno
country districts. In certain locali-
ty III Michigan where accurate statis-
tics were kept it was found that in an
area in which the people used well wa
ter there were just 2G times as many
eases in proportion as there were in
a city district all of whose inhabitants
used Il Lake Superior water. In
Pennsylvania think that the acreage
IS fully as high at least it would reach
ten to fifteen times more for the coun-
| try than for the cities
There is no longer Il question that
the prevalence of this rural typoitl
arises from the fact that population
depends upon polluted well water, and
that the wells are infected from privies
which one time or another have held
typoid eXcreta and infected the sur
rounding ground water.
Wells might not be so bad were it
not for the fact that the ground water
infected with typhoid purifes very
slowly.
To eliminate this disease it is plain
that we have to eliminate one or the
other means of infection, either the
well or the priyy vaults which have
poisoned the waters.
1t will be a hard and thankless task
to get people to give up their privy
vaults and use earth closets, and it will
be matter of many years teaching
before they do it.
On the other hand, changing the
water supply is comparatively easy,
and meets with more eeneralapproval.
A good many Of the small villages are
already working in this direction by
attempting to procure public supply
from some neighboring spring, and by
this means they hope to meet the diff
ficulty; but public supply. such as
is generally furnished to small towns,
very often becomes polluted, and the
danger is worse than ever. Then, too,
Il public supply is comparatively cost
ly.
There is another way, however, to
bridge the difficulty successfully and
cheaply, and this is by substituting
csterns for the wells. BY this means
typhid fever may be eliminated more
quickly and more thoroughly from
rural districts than by any other
method.
The problem of using cistern water
has been carefully studied, and we are
able to tell just exactly the size of the
cistern, the amount of collecting sur
face, ETC., necessary for any given fam
lily, calculated for the known rainfall
Of the district. For example, if the
roof surface contains 1000 square feet
and if the rainfall is 81 inches, about
twenty thousand gallons will we col
lectiblc annually, which at ten gallons
head daily is more than sufficient
for the wants of an ordinary family
For a yearly yield of this amount the
cistern need not be excessively large,
for the rain does not all come down at
once. \ cistern five feet deep and ten
feet in diameter will hold about two
thousand gallons. This will probably
last more than Il month, and before it
is exhausted there will likely be more
rain to al to the supply, for it is rare
that M nth passes without some pre-
cipitation.
If we rely on the cirtern to eliminate
typoid fever, we must pay some atten-
tion to its construction, for only on its
ability to keep our soil water rests the
superiority of the cistern over the we'll
Ii carefully made of bricks and thor
oughIy cemented it will be proof in
most cases against this contamination
from the soil. | know personally of
such q cistern which was made 25
years ago and is still as good as ever
Cistern water generally has pecu-
liar flavor arising from the decompo-
sition of vegetable materials which get
into the water from the collecting sur
face. This may be avoided in Il great
measure by keeping the cistern clean
and by cutoff" so arranged that
the first washings from the roof arc
turned into the street; or if thought
necessary the water may be filtered.
In order to filter cistern water all
we have to do is to build partition in
the cistcrn, with several holes at the
bottom, connecting the two sides. In
to the one side is placed the filter, con-
sisting simply of three or four feet of
coarse sand or of layers of gravel, pol
aritc and sand Into this side the roof
leader empties and into the other dips
the pump BY this means cistern wa
ter may be made as palatable as any
other water, and obtained at much less
expense.
That the use Of cistern water will
prevent typhoid fever in rural districts
is not ypothetical, but a fact proved
by experience. Iii certain county in
Pennsy lvania, on account Of an under
living limestone formation, there is
great inability to get good we'll water,
and rs a consequence the greater part
OF the community uses cistcrns. In
this region Il careful study of the re-
cords Of the resident physicians has