The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-08

dIIo DE LhS
Heaithy-No Fear for Tie |
The following statement in regard
to the recent outbreak Of fever at the
State Normal and Industrial college is
made by Richard Fl. Lewis, NJ. D., sec
rotary of the state board of health. at
the request of the board of directors:
The recent outbreak of fever at the
Normal and Industrial college at
Greensboro has excited in h hearts
of the people of the whole state the
deepest sympathy and concern. The
greatest interest in the origin of the
epidemic is naturally and properly felt
by all. Rumors have been started hav-
ing no basis in fact. To correct any
misapprehensions and for the informa-
ton of the people of the state, the
board of directors at a meeting held
at the college on November Goth, re-
quested, me as secretly of the state
board of health, to p.epare and give
to the press an Off1cia! statement of
the facts as a~scertaine1 to date.
I was instructed to be perfectly
frank, concealing nothing. If, there
fore, anything of Importance should
happen to be omitted from this state
ment the reader may rest assured that
il Was not Intentional, but the result
of a poor memory or the hurry that
very busy men cannot always escape.
Learning Friday night November
24th) that the board of directors of the
college would meet on Monday, and
knowing that the committee of the
board of health, which mad an inves-
tigation early in the week, would not
be able to get in their formal report
In time, l felt it to be my duty as the
executive member of the board of
health to make q. personal investiga-
ton and be prepared as far as possible
to enlighten and advise the directors
if desired by them.
Accordingly, l repaired to Green's
bOrO early Saturday morning and re-
manned there until Tuesday morning,
spending the whole time from break
fast to bedtime, except Sunday morn
ing, at the college.
THE NATURE OF THE FEVER.
After talking over the whole matter
with President McIver my first in
Quiry was the nature of the fever.
Requesting an interview with the ply
Sicians in charge, it was promptly &C
corded and 1 had a very full and sat
isfactory conference with DR.. Cove, the
resident physician, and DR.. W. p.
Beall, the chief consultant, which con-
WINGED me beyond doubt tnat the first
cases., about sixty of the total num-
Der of one hundred cases. beginning
about October 25th, were malarial in
character. For the benefit of the medi-
cal reader. 1 will state that this con-
clusion was based upon h descrip-
ton of the attack given by the doc
tors, the presence of the plasmadium
malaria1 in the blood of all the eight
cases whose blood was examined mi
crOscopically, q verified this by a per-
sonal examination Of two specimens
that had been kept, and in
rom four to ten days under q%uinine.
TIE remaining forty cases, in round
numbers, were clearly typhoid fever.
OF his number about ten seemed to
have been the subjects of a double in
lection, with both malaria and typhoid,
n the remainder uncomplicated ty-
phoid typical in character. 1 was also
Informed that the sickness was strict
ly limited to students who ate and
slept in the college.
Having satisfied myself as to the
nature of the sickness, my next step
was to ascertain, if possible, the cause
or causes of both. We will first con-
slider:
lt1E MAlLAfSlAL Tx
The only thing about the premises
1 could find at all likely to produce ma
laria was a narrow marshy valley car
rying a very small sluggish stream,
so small as to be srarcely p~erceptible
in places, Immediately in the rear Of
the row of buildings composed OF the
presidents house, TIE wooden dormi-
tory, the infirmary and the horse sta
BILE. Upon inquiry 1 also learned that
mosquitoes had been very abundant.
But in this connection it should be
said that malarial diseases ave been
unusually prevalent this season in the
hill country of b state. The reports
from the county superintendent Of
health for September, published in the
Monthly Bulletin" Of the state board
Of health, for October, showed ma
larial fever present lin all parts of
Alamance, Cabarrus, Caswell, David
son, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Ro-
wan. 1t is fair, therefore, to assume
that some of the students brought he
malaria with them from home. but
others, perhaps many, were unques-
tionably infected at Greensboro, as at
least two girls from h mountains a
malarial fever. 1t should not be for
gotten that this has been an excep-
tional year for malaria in the middle
section of the state, and not likely to
be repeated-in the near future, GER
tainly.
THE TYPHOID FEVER-ITS CAUSE.
Typhoid fever is essentially a filth
disease, the germs of which is known
as the bacillus typhosus a mobile, wa
ter borue bacterium which once intro
duced into water or milk or moist
filth reproduces itself with fearful ra-
pidity by fission or splitting in half.
The media of transmission of this germ
are in the order of their Importance
water, milk, insects (fies) and air.
While many high authorities. chiefly
English, believe in the aerial trans
mission, the weight OF opinion is
against it. But all agree that in an
immense majority of cases it is con-
veyed by contaminated water, or
milk infected by such water used in
aduherating it or in washing the cans
or the udder of the cow. or by the
hands of a not over-cleanly mixer,
who either has a walking case of
the disease himself. or has infected
his hands in nursing a case.
Bearing these principles in mind, /