The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-09-23
DISTRIBUTE DISEASE
Street Cars as Disseminat.Ss of In
feetious Naladies.
HysHe Essessx
Initiated Air and Expect or alton ReA.
der These Conveyances Fruit
full Sources of Confaxion-
Need of Stringent RaIes.

In the larger cities of this country
the street car is as potent a factor in
the dissemina ton of communicable
diseases as many of those usually cata-
logued in the standard works. of hy.
giene. In these larger centers of popu-
lation the condition is one of an ex-
cessive number of passengers crowded
into limited number of cars. In some
cities this continues throughout the
entire day, and in all of them during
the morning and evening hours. Dur
ing the period of congested traffic, the
cars are crowded to the limit, every
seat being occupied, and the aisles and
rear platforms literally packed with
all classes of our variegated popula-
tion, says the Interstate Medical j our
nal.
The ventilatio of these cars is in
to this important matter on the part
of the builders of this class of rolling
stock, and also because the passengers
differ so widely as to the proper tenn
perature and circulation necessary
to their comfort
tuberculosis is undoubtedly propa.
gated through the medium of these
cars, which become infected by the
promiscuous expectoration INDUCED
in by consumptives, notwithstanding
notices of warning. Hannum. ofCleve-
land, recently examined 25 specimens
of sputum found in street cars as
from the interiors and ten from the
rear platforms): the tubercIe bacillus
was present in three Instances. Other
specimens showed the pneumococcus
and the bacillus infuenzae.
These conditions, the persou-to-per-|
son contract. and the breathing of
vitiated air frequently laden with
contagious exhaIations and with dust
from dried sputHm, are most favora-
bic to the distribution of contagious
diseases. OF course, it is only prob
lematical as to the number of small
pox cases which were infected
through these conditions during the
recent epidemic, but it is certain that
but few better opportunities of in
fection are offered than through the
street-car contact of all classes.
Other transmissib1e diseases can
very easily be, and no doubt are, COM
in the same way.
The solution of this problem IS not
easy. Street railway companies are
not inclined to relieve the present
situation without compu1sion. Fiealth
officers, however, have authority over
the sanitation of these public con-
veyances. This authority in most
gives sufficient power
to prevent undue overcrowding of
ears when such prevention would be
for the protection of public health.
When necessary, as in times of a
general epidemic, such, authority
should be exercised. Under an cir |
regular disinfection of
street cars should be practiced III an
efficient manner. In this way the |
cars can be made biological1y clean.
and the health of the community bet
ter protected. There is just as much |
occasion for this procedure as there
is for the disinfect1on of Pullman
cars, now energeticalfy practiced at
different points. Investigation has
developed the fact that there is but |
Dne city in the country, Philadel-
phia, where any pretense is made Of
5ieinfection of street cars. The |
Union Traction company of that city
its cars with carbolic acid |
This possibly answers for the killing
of bacterial life on the floors and
W. lis of the cars, but does no good |
for the contaminated places where
dust has settled, and which nothing I
but a gaseous agent would reach.
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