The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-28
THE EPIDEMIC Al THE NORMAL.
Investigating the Cause Bad Plumb
ing-A Drain-Pfpe With It's Mouth in
the Meat House-Terrible RESPONSE
bility for Somebody.
(Raleigh Post.)

Greensboro, N. c., November IL
Further investigation seems to estab-
Iish the fac that sickness at the Nor
NAL is due entirely to a local cause.
This morning I mac an interview with
Colonel A. w. Shaffer. of Raleigh, a
member of the state board of health,
on the subject, and he stated that two
of the drainage pipes were defective.
One runs from the sink and underneath
the dining room and kitchen. AS I
mentioned in my correspondence yes
terday. this is a terra Gotta pipe n is
broken in ten or a dozen places.
The other pipe carries off the rain
water from the roofs of the buildings
and probably takes away other refuse.
1T has been found that in some way
this pipe has had its mouth in the
meat house." as Colonel Shaffer says.
He believes this to be due to a mistake
ON the part of the plumbers.
charleston News and Courier.)
A dispatch from Greensboro, n. c.,
that an epidemic of typhoid
fever has broken out at the State Nor
mai and Industrial college at that place
making it necessary TO close the school
until January 1st. 1.-Two OF the young
lady students, it is added, " have died
of the disease, and more h eighty
Of them are now confined to their beds
by sickness" 1T is believed the cpl
demic is caused by defective sewerage"
The belief is doubtless we'll founded,
and If it shall prove to be SO a heavy
responsibility will lie at the doors of
the sanitary authorities of the college
the responsibility for all the sickness
tina has occurred and for the deplora-
BILE loss of life that has already result
ed and may yet result from their neg
ligence. For that they have been neg
gigent cannot be doubted if the out
break is due, as suspected, to defective
sewerage. 1t was their first duty to
insure, as far as they could, the health
of the students under their care; n
the most important part of that duty
was to see to it that the sewerage or
the institution was not defective" but
was as perfect as it could be made,
and that the waiter supply was proof
against contamination. They were not
without recent and impressive lessons
of the harmful and fatal results of neg
lecting these matters. Within the past
two years serious and fatal epidemics
of the same disease occurred ait w
like institutions within a few miles OF
them, at Clemson and Rock Hill, in
South Carolina, both of which were
Traced 10 UeIeCllNe Sewerage. Dul -
ing the past few weeks another cpl
demic of the same character has occur
red just across the Virginia line. in the
college at Lexington, neceSSftatlng the
closing Of that school. Three such OUT
breaks, to Cite no others, in he same
section of country, and so nearly to-
gether, should have made the health
and other officials of the Greensboro
colleger extremely careful to guard
against a recognized source of the
greatest danger which threatened the
little community under their charge.
The report of the widespread Illness
in the community and Of it's probable
cause indicates that they have been
either i~nexcusably ignorant of the con-
dition of the sanitary equipment of the
college, or i~nexcusably Indifferent to
it, and in either event they are respon-
sTble for the distressing results OF their
inaction.
Certainly the occurrence of four Sc
rious epidemics Of the same fell dis
ease, in so rapid succession, in as many
colleges in this part OF the country,
should make the authorities OF every
institution among us more than care
full to guard against such outbreaks
hereafter, and, it may be added, should
leave them without effective excuse for
their culpable negligence in any case
where one occurs again. 1t is a sound
rule for the guidance of he boards OF
directors on such occasions, in future,
that college officials who cannot pro-
tect their schools from invasion OF pre-
ventable disease are not fit persons to
1arua 1bnrrn ~ rrIoh institutions