The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-05
THE CONQUEST OF TYPHOID.
IGNORANCE or THE DISEASE SIXTY
YEARS AGO.
A Historic Epidemic and the Con-
dicting Theories 1t Gave Rise to.
What the Bacillus Looks Like.

ficting Theories 1t Gave Rise to.
What the Bacillus Looks Like.
From the New York Evening Post
Perhaps it is presumptuous to speak of
the conquest OF typhoid fever in a coun-
try where in every year $4,000 persons
are attacked by it, and $1,000 die of it,
but all conquests have beginning, and
it will be demonstrated that the number
of victims is annually decreasing in those
regions where the proper preventive ac-
tive has been taken.
Sixty years ago people thought of 1t as
caused by a mysterious dispensation Of
Divine Providence, but they did not in
quire as to why these mysterious vista
tons should be more numerous in Sep
TENDER and October, than in other months,
or why, if it was a retribution, it should
be executed on the people who bought
milk from some particular dealer, while
all the rest of the citizens were exempt.
1t did not occur to people that they were
10 do anything but yield in dumb lam
gushing submission to the inevitable. But
the spirit of inquiry was abroad, and there
are people who reasoned that every
physical effect must have some adequate
cause, and among these persons was DR..
Austin Flint, then practlcing in Buffalo
and afterwards President of Bellevue Col
lege, N. Y A remarkable opportunity
came to this remarkably competent man,
and there is no measuring the benehcent
consequences that have flowed from the
thoroughness of his investigations and his
astuteness in perceiving the bearing of
the facts in the case. He wrote out care
full account of the entire episode for tho
Philadelphia Medical Times of July, 1916,
in an article called Typhoid Fever at
North Boston, N. Y, in 1S4S." A short
time before, in response to an offer of
prize, seventeen essays had been submit
ted to the French academy, I'm which thir-
teen maintained a belief in its contagious
ness but book designed for medical stu
dents in America mentioned non-contag
iousness as a. feature which distinguish
ed it from typhus. This shows how much
The profession was at sea. If Dr. Flint
had undertaken to devise an experiment
to uphold his opinion of the contagious
ness of the disease, he could not have
planned one moro complete in all it's de-
tails than the one which came to his
hand ready made.
The Visitation at Boston.
North Boston was a village about eigh-
teen miles from Buffalo. 1t was a we'll
drained locality in which there had been
no typhoid or other fevers, and in no part
Of the county had 1t occurred, UP to the
a novel disease to the physicians called
upon to treat 1t. The village consisted OF
only nine families, all living within an
area a hundred rods in diameter; but the
few houses in which the disease occurred
We're closely grouped together, the house
farthest removed from the tavern being
only ten rods distant. F'orty-three persons
made up the entire community. On Sept.
q a young man from Warwick, Mass,
being on a journey westward, took lodg-
ings at the tavern kept by a man named
Fuller. He had beeen Ill for several days,
and had kept on his journey until he felt
unable to proceed farther. He remained
at the tavern, and died Oct. 49, DIR. Tim
othy T. Lockwood attended him to within
nine days Of his death. A 'Thompsonian'
doctor was then called, who, after a few
da ySs;-FFas succeeded by DR. Allan part
ner of DR.. Lockwood. Drs Lockwood and
Allen declare that his symptoms were ex-
actly those of the subsequent cases." DIR.
Flint learned afterwards that there were
several cases of typhoid at Warwick at
the time the young man left. Between
Oct. 10 and Dec. twenty-eight Of the
forty-three persons in North Boston were
attacked with fever, and of these ten
died. Seven cases and three deaths oc-
CURED in the family of the tavern keep
er. In another family there were seven
cases, five of which proved fatal.
1t can be imagined that the little vii
lage was in a state of paniO and the doc
tors divided In opinion, as they had a new
and to them, a mysterious diesease TO
deal with. Three families ESCAPED. and
one Of these, named Stearns, was at Bit
ter feud with Fuller, the tavern keeper.
Stearus lived four rods from the tavern
The two families had no intercourse. and
the story was started that the disease was
produced by poison introduced by Stearns
into the families affected. Fuller and TIE
other families in the vicinity were accus-
toned to get their water from the well
situated near the tavern. 1t was charged
that Stearns had poisoned the we'll Sew
eral pumps were placed In ii, and an eff
fort made to exhaust the water, but with
out avail. Some facts looked dark for
Stearns. Up to short time before these
happenings Stearns had taken the water
from Fuller's well, but owing to the hos
tility between the families, Fuller had for
hidden Stearns to use 1t, and he had been
obliged to dig out and deepen an old we'll
Of his own, and another OF the families
which did not take water from Fuller's
we'll escaped.
Accused of Poisoning a Wen.
The majority of the community believed
in the poison theory Stearns conscious
of innocence, began suit for slander
which was finally settled by the payment
of 500 by the party prosecuted Most OF
these villagers were poor, and an appn
cation was made that a physician should
be sent from Buffalo to aid In inouirinr
into the origin of the disease The choice
fell on DR.. Flint. He knew the disease
of old, and he at once made an autopsy
on a child Of IL years, just dead and took
careful notes at the bedside of nine cases