The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1905-09-29
INFLUENCE OF SANITATION
DRAINAGE, SUNLIGHT AND FRESH
AIR THE AGENTS.
EXPERIENCE THE WORLD ovEF

\ SOL saturated WIN folIutoH bTecus
Disease and " Norfolk Continues to
Ignore Sanitary Rules There Can be
But One Result.
The pollution that begets disease
depends upon the accumulation and
retention in the soil and water OF ex-
crementitious and other decomposing
matter rather than upon the number
or density of the population Of com
munity Nothing Is so unspeakably
filthy and deadly as the infiltration OF
sewerage into the soil and water OF
a city. A single case Of typhoid Is
capable through the contamination of
drinking water of injecting the inhab-
itants of an entire city. Not only do
certain diseases initiate their course
in the filth of city but many others
find there the environment favorable
to their development and spreading.
Living upon such a soil and constantly
breathing the noxious effluvium aris-
ing therefrom, even when infection
does not occur, lowers the vitality of
persons so exposed and lessons the ma
tural resistance of the system to dis
ease and a people thus situated be-
come an easy prey to epidemic dis
eases. Certain germs, like the spo-
rules Of the bacillus typhosis, will live
for years in the soil and water and
survive climatic extremes Of tempera.
ture and develop when favorable con-
ditions overtake them. This germ,
like the tubercular bacillus and many
others, requires moisture for its de-
velopment
Drainage, sunlight and fresh air are
the great sanitary agents, for running
water purifies itself, air in motion OK
idizes impurities and a dry soil eX-
posed to sunlight is an unfavorable
environment for the growth OF germs.
From time immemorial savages have
changed their camping grounds period
ically and when leaving their old
camps burned everything except few
articles necessary for their existence.
One of the greatest cities of modern
times had up to a few years ago
drained its sewerage into the lake
from whence it drew its drinking wa
ter and when the practice was at last
discontinued the death rate fell eight
per cent With a million inhabitants
and billions of dollars in property 1t
took half of a century before Chi
cago was willing to pay the price for
freedom from epidemic diseases. The
era of money madness through which
we are now passing will come to an
abrupt and tragic closing through the
spread of some awful epidemic. Peo
pie will abandon their mansions and
throw their wealth away as If 1t was
polluted and out of the disaster man
kind will rise to a saner comprehen
sion of life In fourteen Of the chief
centers of the world the black or bu
bonic plague has today gained such
a foothold that if the facts were pub
lished people the world over would
be Mortified. At this moment the gov
ernment is fighting it right here in
the United States, in India over a
million have succumbed to its ravages
it has spread through China destroy
ing millions of that cOuntry's unnum
bered and unvalued lives, in Manchu
ria it has compelled both Russia and
japan to stop fighting and seek peace
The ghastly black plague was the real
arbiter between these warning nations
Everywhere news of its spread is
suppressed but that it is gaining
ground irresistibly, in spite of all ef
forts for it's suppression, is an as
srred fact. The horrible character OF
this disease may be appreciated when
we recall that it spread over the world
in the year 1852 and that 400O0,00C
Caucasians, besides other races, sue
cumbed to it. In Europe it destroyed
one-fourth of the inhabitants. II is
germ disease that invades and per
meates the entire system. These
great epidemics have spread over the
world at intervals from the earliest
times. Once in five hundred years
there has existed a peculiar condition
of the atmosphere that favored theil
spread and in a year they circled tht
globe. The great epidemic of 81
berian influenza that swept over the
world ten years ago is a striking ex
ample of how these epidemics overleal
all sanitary restrictions, but alas To-
those who neglect sanitary precau
tions, for there epidemics exact four
fold toll. No price is too high to pa!
for the protection of life that moderI
sanitation affords and if Norfolk con
tinues to ignore sanitary laws an out
break of disease may occur at an.
time that will horrify the country.
]. H. Mackay.