The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-09
DIR. STEWARDS DUTY.

CITY HEALTH OFFICER STEW
\ ART has a peculiar notion Of the
OBLIGATIONS Of mis- position. Having
discovered that large part Of the
citys water supply was polluted by
ease of typhoid fever iE Lambs can
yon. he takes no steps. other than
simple notification 90 the county au-
thorlties To- eradicate the evil. DIT.
stewart g. proceeding on the altogether
erroneous theory that. because the
source of infection is beyond the juris-
iiction or the city he has no authority
TO use ala necessary methods of insur-
mig the publication Of the stream
It cannot fail to be a matter Of re-
gret for all salt Lakers that Dr. Stew
art has not realized that any pollution
q the citys water supply, no matter
where it may be found, is within his
Jurisdiction. In crises such as Salt
Lake is facing, there is no time for
red tape or foolish, formal ceremony
Il is DR.. Stewards business to clean
the Bullock premises in Lambs can
you. TO carefully search out and dis
infect aU the excreta deposited there
iu the ueighborhood of the stream and
90 do everything else his scientific
training suggests.
While neither the ordinances nor the
statutes give DIT Stewart specific au-
thOrity under circumstances such as
these. no sane citizen could possibly
criticise him If he usurped the author
ity. And IN this action he would be
. guided by "a precedent established by
DR.. r. B. Beatty when he was health
officer ten years ago. a case of ty-
phoid was discovered in one of the
canyons outside the technical jurisdic-
ton OF the city health officer. Never
thcless. recognizing the exisencies of
the case. DR.. Beatty. without asking
permission from anyone, sent men to
the ranch where the fever was and saw
20 it that all sanitary rules were OBJ
served.
There is no doubt that his action
saved the city from an epidemic of ty-
phoid fever. We repeat that it is a
pity Dr. Stewart has not acted as did
his predecessor in Office. The county
authorities are VIGOROUSLY slow about
acting Nobody can say how long il
viii take them to place the Bullock
ranch in such shape as will render fur
Their contamination of the water ir
Parley's impossible. The situation i;
one in which delay must not be coun-
tenanced. Jurisdiction or no jurisdic
ton. authority or no authority, tn,
city health department must look aftel
this work
desire again to caution, not only thu
people who use Parley's water, bu
citizens generally. to boil every drol
OF water they drink. 1t is not pleasan
to disagree with some sO-caled au
thorities on this subject, but we insis
that analyses of city water are no
of much value. We have had recen
Illustrations of this fact. With cas-
or typhoid poluting the Farley
stream. examination after examination
of that water showed. so far as sue
examinations could show. that it wa
pure.
Yet we know now, too late, unfor
tunately. that typhoid bacilH were
1T. So "a negative analysis is reaH
more harmful than helpful. OF course
analyses do show sometimes that wa
ter is polluted but unless, in the half
drop Of water that is placed under
slide. a typhoid bacillus is caught, an
nouncement is made that the water
pure. and people are misled. The onl
safety lies I'm the medium of boile
water. This fact cannot be too strong
iy emphasized.
And the future safety OF the city lie
i'm the purchase Of all land I'm all tf
canyons through which the water sur
ply comes. provided that there is
possibility Of contamination in an
such land