Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-11
THE SMEAD SYSTEM.
The Mt. Pleasant Committee on the
johnson school Building.
To tho Editor NJ The Fyepinp Star.

NV
IN me TWO areieees III soof satuioas ISSUE
regarding tho johnson school at Mt. Pleas
ant it is stated four times that the Dis .
,rict of4icials GRO nor defending tho sn,ead
% S.-...Te.i
- stem oi ieauhs anu 'eilli"'ioh as ea-
tablished In that building.
1t is stated three times that the District
officials do NOT agree that the smead svs-
,,, e. ..o1o,,a,, ~ ..,,,,a1I,,, ~, ..orti.oi,,,,
N'AAA a. 01'i'S' VI "f''iS VI te's
responsible for the unfavorable conditions.
These cautious statements emphasize the
iustica of the nrotest of onr citizers against
+to co,,tfr,Ia,,ca nf +be s,,s+or,
- " "
But there are In the articles referred 10
two statements which ought not to go I'M
noticed and 10 which as the committee
i,bo ,,ra,,arad tho r.,or+ o5on+ad b,, +ho
~ pllN't' - nv ~ 't-o
mass meeting, we desire TO reply.
There is a criticism of some physicians
who are said TO have reported the recovery
% scarlet fever patients in Mt. Pleasant
in nine or ten days after the development
of the disease If there could not have been
a recovery Within the time named was it
not the duty of the health office to cues
ton it at the time? If there was a posi-
lyality of communicating the contagion ought
not the health office to- have maintained
the quarantine notwithstanding the physi-
clans reDort2 Medical authorities saw that
scarlet fever and diphtheria are equally
communicable by personal contact. AS We
have had both diseases in Mt pleasant
the chances for the communication of either
are therefore equal and the number az
cases should he a hon+ the Same Eut the
fact is there have been three times as many
cases of scarlet fever. Now. the same authors
say that diphtheria can not be communt-
caied from The bodily excavations hut thar
scarlet fever can be SO contra cted Are we
to believe that physicians are less cantious
as to scarlet fever. and parents more care
less than about dinhtheriao Or having II,
this defenseIass Srread system airs arising
or drauehts pouring from nth wants into
the rooms where children sit with wet feet
and subjected to VARYING temperatures
shall we not saw with reason that the
system is the chief cause of the evils? And
If there are incautious physicians having
patients in Mt Pleasant and careless mar
ents. as there are everywhere from whose
mistakes the community must suffer shall
the conditions be aggravated by the COM
tinuance of this system in our public
schools, hot beds for scarlet fever and
diphtheria which our District experts have
condemned. and which no enlightened man,
expert or laymau can reasonably defend?
Again. it is stated that a committee of
District officials had on Saturday made an
examina ton of the system which thew saw
was found to work perfectly. no back
draughts being discovered and no odors
being detected" AS in the next sentence
IL is said that the committee would recon-
mend the removal of the dry closets. il is
evident that the committee mean no more
than Is quoted and that they do not in
tend to be understood as saying that the
system would, 4 rule, work Derfectly -
or that there would not be under other
conditions both back draughts from the
foul chamber and focal odors Indeed one
member of that committee. the District
chemist in his report found In the report
OF the health office for 1897, discussing the
proposition that the Smead system will
not work perfectly'' unless the doors and
windows of the rooms are kent closed
states substantially that the system il nm,
reliable He saysi
1T would thus seem that all that would
be necessary to do would be to close the
door, in which case. there being no escane
for the air In this direction Il would he
forced to find an exit through the vent,Ie
tors. This is, In fact. exactly what han
mems only the ventilators work 90 sIoyfv
that the air in those rooms soon becor,as
ouIta fouI and II seema necessar, tbnras
fore that the j1oors or winSnws r,,,st he
nnanaS Rnt than cor,as ~ asn ri''e NC
pavarsaI ~ the cnprant ' and ~ Tn. ~ d
merely act as large ventiator for the the