The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-10-03
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH
HAS OPINIONS ABOUT'Ir.
1t is the Source Of Typhoid Fever
in Some Cities in the Valley,
Says the Board-Advises
Salem Albany, Eugene
and Corvallis to
Filter.

/ .
Health, says the Oregonian, al
which action was taken regarding
the danger of using Willamette
River water for domestic purposes
Concerning the boards attitude Dr.
Hutchinson, president said subse.
quently:
''All We shall do at present is te
advise ref,rms and improvements.
mo more?"
"If the towns neglect to remove
unhealthful conditions, the law
gives US power TO compel. But we
shall not have to resort to that ex-
tremity. We have gathered in.
formation which is prima facie evil
deuce that water in some towns,
Salem for example, is drawn from
conta minated supply.
For the past Is years Salem has
had more than its share of typhoid
The epidemic worked its way into
the state Institutions last year. But
those institutions get their water
from different source than does
the town. Hence the board discus
sedsthe two problems separately.
The board has oaly appfexim te
data of the full number Of typnoid
cases at Salem. Eight ply sicians
have infurmed the board that, az
nearly a they can remember, they
treated o5 typhoid patients in 1902
and IoS in the past three or four
months.
"This number is beyond reason"
says the board.
Four months ago teachers held
an institute at the capital city. Ten
or II were striken with the disease.
A little while later rs or 20 persons
in camp OF Seventh-day Adven-
fists took sick and half a dozen
others after leaving the city. The
teachers drank the city water.
which comes from the Willamette
River. The Adventists drank water
from a well which they themselves
dug: The well was $50 yards dis.'
tant from Mill Greek, which ii
known to have been irnpregnated
with typhoid germs several months
before, and about. loo yards away
from a house in which typhoid had
caused death several months pre-
vious.
OF all the cases investigated by
the board, two thirds seem to have
come from city water and one
third from we'll water. This esti-
mate was gained from the testimony
of the patients and may be more or
less correct. But there is no doubt
tb the source of the trouble was
the water,
The board has been challenged to
prove the existence of noxious ele-
ments in the water by chemical or
meteorological analysis. The board
is unable to offer such proof, but
regards the other evidence as con.
elusive enough. 1t advises filter
alton of the city water and the cio-
sing of wells in certain areas"
Last fall typhoid invaded the
reform school, and then the peni-
tentiary and the asylum. The pen
iten,iary is the worst off, for out of
Its 900 inhabitants IS have had
the disease.
Mill Greek is the stream from
which the disease has made its way
into the institutions. The Reform
School has spring and can avoid
the danger. The asylum can do
likewise by susing its large well.
but the penitentiary has two wells
which are inadequate. Ali the In
stitutions need more copious supply
of pure water, and the board recon
mends the drilling of more wells.
The board has traced the devel-
opment of typhoid through the in
stitutions last year. On September
10 1902, the Reform school began
using water from Mill Greek. Two
weeks later sickness began and tbs
cases followed each other rapidly.
In October there we're 20 patients
On October IS the Mill Greek
supply was shut off and the sickness
diminished in two weeks.
At Albany water is drawn from a
ditch which flows through open
fields IS miles from the Santiam
River. Along the ditch are barns
and houses, " hose drainage flows
into the ditch. This danger has
been eradicated. Four years ago
Albany had a prevalsnceeof typhoid.
Eugene is poorly supplied. Two
wells in the gravel bank Of the
Willamette furnish water for the
city.
Corvallis gets water directly from
the Willamette. The wateris not
contaminated. but liberation would