Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1905-09-14
PHYSICIANS give
THEIR VIEWS

Ii is pretty obvious that there is a
good deal of illness about town, which
in view of the b d sanitary conditions
prevailing is not at all reassuring to
our citizens. at the same time it is
worth relating that our physicians
while they admit the prevalence of
disease see nothing in it that is alarm
in1 at present, although they take the
are a bad feature.
Our town has got a good deal Of
cleaning up to do before it Is either
entirely presentable in appearance or
free from suspicion of breeding dis
ease. How far the Ieeky and foul smell
ing canal is responsible for malarial
and other feVers that alflict humanity
is problcmahcal That it has a bane-
ful effect no one will dispute. 1t is
here however, apparently to stay, too
| big nuisance fer the Borough to cope
with But there are other sources OF
disease, hos YER, less in extent hut
quite as noxious, that are plainly un'
der the Borougi's control and which
should be gotten rid of very soon.
Not the least Of these is the bed of
! Billiards. run. 1t borders on the par
adoxical to assert that the bottom of
this stream since the sewer has been
! laid, along it's course is more foul aud
disgusting than it was before. yet this
is Just the way a leading citizen OF
our town put it the other day.
The pipe sunk under the surface
suf1ices to carry of all the water so
that the bed of the stream is dry. Pre-
viously the steady flow of water dilut-
ed and carried off much of the foul
matter The sewer is all right in
theory. 1t was the proper thing to
oblige all persons whose establishmt nts
polluted the crl elk TO connect with the
sewer. But the order should have been
made very sweeping and have been
strictly enforced. There are still
sources of shameful pollution and thus
the very object and effect of the sewer
is neutralzad, as the filthy matter
dropping into the bed of the dry
stream lies there an offense to the eye
and nostrll alike and rendering the
second condition of Billiards. run
worse than the first.
There are many places about the
town that could be improved and this
applies quite as much to private as to
nuhlio property. Many of the back
Yards. cleaned out In the spring, by
l this time show quite an accumulation
D of garbage that should be gotten rid
of as soon as possible Imperfect drain
' age is a bad thing. one that is re-
J. sponsible for more unhealth than most
= people dream of. Yet at how many
g pla .es at the very threshold of the
dwelling one sees staguant water ly-
/ ing in the drains. A remedy for this
in large portion of the town oi
course, could he found by connecting
with the sewer; where this is i'm
rrartiaabic the next best thing can be
. done, which is to keep the drains clear
and to exercise as much care as posi-
BILE.
One of our leading physicians inter
, viewed stated that in his opinion. now
:, that the Hospital is again draining 1T
sewage into the river the proper thint
= to do is to boil all the hydrant watel
used for drinking purposes. He stated
: that with the immense volume of sew
, age draining into the river such shor
distance above town it was preposter
> ous to think that at least portion o
= it does not find its way into our waite
system and assuming that such is tn
case it is equally preposterous to thin
le that our filter plant is going to elimi
( nate the bacteria, which are indissolu
r, bly, linked with the idea of sewage.