The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-01-29
How to Prevent Typhoid Fever in
Rural Districts.
From the Medical Record.

IypnOlu IeNer Is Tie plague vi Iiio Co'"-
try districts. In certain locality in Mich
igan where accurate statistics were kept 1t
was found that in an area in which the
people used we'll water there were just 26
times as many cases in proportion as there
were in a city district all of whose inhabi-
tants used a Lake Superior water. In
PENNSYLVANIA | think that the average is
fully as high at least it would reach ten to
fifteen times more for the country than for
the cities.
There is no longer a question that the
prevalence of this rural typhoid arises from
the fact that the population depends upon
polluted well water, and that the wells are
infected from privies which one time OF an
other have held typhoid excreta and infect
ed the surrounding ground water.
Wells might not be 50 bad were 1t not
for the fact that the ground water infected
with typhoid purifeS very slowly y.
To eliminate this disease it is plan that
we have to eliminate one or the other
means of infection, either the well or the
privy vaults which have poisoned the wa
ters.
1t will be 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 d" it.
On the other hand. changing the water
supply is comparatively easy, and meets
with more general approval \ good many
of the small villages are already working
in this direstion by at npting to procure
Il public supply from some neighboring
spring, and by this means they hope to
meet the difficulty; but a public supply.
such as is generally furnished to small
towns, very often becomes polluted. and
the danger is worse than ever Then. too,
public supply is comparatively costly.
There is another way, however. to bridge
the difficulty successfully and cheaply, and
that is by substituting cisterns for the old
wells. BY this means typhoid fever may
be eliminated more quickly and more thor
oughly from rural districts than by any
other method.
The problem of using cisterm water has
been carefully studied, and we are able to
tell Just exactly the size Of the cisterm, the
amount of collecting surface, etc, necessary
for any given family, calculated for the
known rainfall of the district For exam
pie, if the roof surface contains 1000 square
feet and if the rainfall is 81 inches, about
twenty thousand gallons will be collectible
annually, which at ten gallons head daily
is more than sufficient for the wants Of AN
ordinary family. Fora yearly yield Of this
amount the cistern need not he 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 thou
sand gallons This will probably last more
than a month and before it is exhausted
there will likely be more rain to add to the
supply, for it is rare that month passes
without some precipitation.
If we rely on the cisten to eliminate ty
phoid fever, we must pay some attention to
its construction, for only on its ability to
keep our soil water rests the superiority Of
the cistern over the well. If carefully
made of bricks and thoroughly cemented it
will be proof in most cases against this CON
taminatiOn from the soil know person
ally of such cistern which was made -
years ago and is still as GOOD as ever
Cistern water generally has peculiar
flavor arising from the decomposition Of
vegetable materials which get into the
water from the collecting surface This
may be avoided in great measure by keep
ing the cistern clean and by cutoff.
so arranged that the first washings from the
roofar 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 a partition in the
cistern, with several holes at the bottom,
connecting the two sides Into the one
side is placed the filter, consisting simply
of three or four feet of coarse sand or of
layers of gravel, polarite and sand Into
this side the roof leader empties and into
the other dips the pump. By this means
cistern water may be made as palatable as
any other water. and obtained at much less
expense.
That the use of cistern water will pre-
vent typhoid fever in rural districts is not
Hypothetical, but fact proved by expert
ence. In a certain county in Pennsylvania,
on account of an underlying limestone for
nation, there is great inability to get
good we'll water, and as consequence the
greater part of the community uses els
terms In this region careful study of the
records of the resident physicians has been
made, and it was found that there was
marked absence of typhoid fever. One of
the towns in this place, well known to the
author, will serve as an example of all the
rest. This town of 1900 inhabitants has
for many years depended almost exclusively
on eisten water, and as result typhoid
fever is practically an unknown disease
In the last 20 years, so the oldest resident
physician tells me. there has not occurred
one case of typhoid fever among those ex-
clusively using cistern water In all this
time, moreover, there have been very few
cases of fever in the whole town, aud every
one has been traced to the use of well or
spring water. The exact record for the
last five years is three cases Of fever, which
the attending physician would not call
''true' typhoid. Taking these cases,
however, to be typhoid, and counting one
death for every 20 sick, it would make the
death rate of this community something
like one per 10, OOO-probably the lowest,
at least one of the lowest, typhoid death
rates ever attained.
Here, then, is town where the typhoid
sick rate is hardly worth considering and
where the death rate is almost nil
If all rural jewellers would give up their
wells and resort to the cistern the story of
this one town would be repeated every
where and rural typhoid would become an
unknown disease
A RESULT OF MATRIMoNY. -"Do you
meas to say, Chumley, that you spend