The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-11
TYPHOID COSTING $25O,0O0,OO0 A YEAR Water, Milk and Food Are
 Sources of Infection CITIES TAKE UP THE FIGHT Examples of the Poor Economy of Hesitating to Install Expensive
 Filtration PIants-How to
 Avoid Fever.
CITIES TAKE UP THE FIGHT
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

year in hard cash, to say nothing of thousands of human lives and untold suf- fering. This vast sum is the cost of neg hgenee. With proper precautions the in- dividual may almost surely escape infec- ton, and by cooperation in city, town and country, the nation could stamp it out. Formerly when physicians did not know just how this disease was com municated, it was considered inevitable and everyone expected to have it sooner or later. Many persons actually believed that + served good purpose in cleans ing the system, in the event that the patient recovered. It is now definitely known that 1t is caused by taking the specific bacillus into the system through the mouth, and that the only cleans ing that takes place is done not by the disease, but by nature when she rids the system of an unclean infection.
 Typhoid fever comes from drinking pol- luted water or milk or eating polluted food. Milk laws in cities are arpidly re- ducing the danger of infection from that source to a minimum, and pure bottled water is always procurable to persons who can afford to buy it. But the vast majority cannot afford to buy table water when the free supply is contaminated and the average citizen trusts to luck rather than take the trouble of provid- ing against disaster. He declines to boil his drinking water even when the pres- ence of an epidemic in the city, and appeals from the health office, call his attention to the necessity for doing so
 Typhoid fever is not prominent in the list of fatal diseases. The percentage of fatalities is usually small, but the dis ease entails upon the patient a long period of critical illness, requires care full nursing and is a heavy expense to every family it visits. Unlike many in- fections typhoid fever frequently comes from the country to the city and care lessness in nursing one case may pollute the water supply of the nearest town which in turn may pollute that of the next town or city and produce an epi- demc of huge proportions.
 Even after physicians discovered the means by which typhoid fever is com municated it was generally believed that water free from visible impurities was safe, and that visibly foul water was dangerous. Although the latter conclusion is generally correct, the former is wholly erroneous. When a city's water supply comes directly from muddy stream the probabilities are that it contains the in lection. as typhoid fever is existent at all times and streams are open to pollution from many sources, but perfectly clear water, having every appearance of pur- ity may be more dangerous than muddy water. The house filter clarifies, but does not actually cleanse. 1s tas
 Bacteria may be eliminated from water only by an elaborate system of municipal filtration or by thorough boiling. An illustration of the truth of this state
 
 fever became prevalent in fashionable quarter of an American city where bot tied water was used almost exclusively for drinking. Investigation showed that the water came from Spring upon the property of the dealer in the city. Bacteriologists discovered that the water was full of typhoid bacilli, and a fur ther investigation showed that the "spring" was a leak from a sewer. The water Altering through several yards of earth had been made perfectly clear and apparently pure, without eliminating the poison. This is as much as an ordinary house filter can be expected to do.
 Nearly all lakes, streams and rivers from which cities get their supply of drinking water contain the germs of typhoid fever drained into them from watersheds where typhoid fever patients are treated without a thought of the results of carelessness to other persons. An illustration of the evil that results was afforded when a serious epidemic n a small Pennsylvania city was traced by scientists to the contamination of it's mountain water supply by the careless handling of one case of fever at resi- dence near the lake from which the city drew its water. Sometime ago New ork police reporter in looking over the water report noticed the technical term "nitrates." Upon inquiry he learned that 'nitrates meant possible typhoid fever infection. He visited the Croton watersheds and discovered that many hamlets and towns were draining all sorts of filth into the New York water sup ply. As a result of the uproar created by the publication of his story some POGO buildings were torn down by the order of the New York board of health and a reduction in the number of typhoid fever cases in the city followed.
 The epidemic at Ithaca, N. Y, which re- suited in many fatalities, and caused Cor nell university to practically suspend for time, was another instance of the pol lution of the water supply causing an cpl demic to rage in January. Chicago has had trouble for many years with her supply of water from Lake Michigan. Upon one occasion it was discovered that the government scows under the direction of a United States army engineer en- gagged in river and harbor work, were dumping filth too near the intakes. Liti- gation institution by the city resulted in the correction of the evil, but while the matter was being dragged through the courts an epidemic of typhoid fever ragged At another time an epidemic caused an investigation that resulted in the discov- cry that the city authorities, to save ex- pense, had been pumping through aban- doned water tunnels too close to the city. The cost of the resultant epidemic was pumping, to say nothing of the cost in human life. In Butler, Pa, several years ago, the filter plant was closed for ten days for repairs There were at the time | two cases of typhoid fever near the pump 1 ing station. In short time there were | between 1200 and 1900 cases of typhoid | fever in Butler.
 l For a long time 1t was contended that | water in streams purified itself every few | miles. The absurdity of this theory was | demonstrated so frequently that it finally | became patent to both laymen and phy
 sicians that it was based largely upon imagination Excellent proof of it's falsity was given when it was observed that an l increase in the number of reported cases of typoid fever in one Massachusetts city, | nine miles down the Merrimac river from | another place, invariably followed an epi- l demic in the upstream city. Finally the l lower place installed a filter plant and | the upper one sought a new source of | water supply, with the result that the 1 percentage of typhoid fever cases to total | population reduced to a minimum in