Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-09-18
NEW HEALTH PsoJeCT.
National Reform Movement Is Started
} in Boston.

A movement to lay the foundation
of a national reform in all large cities
was recently started In Boston with
the object of promoting health in
new and original way. which starts at /
the root of an evil and is generally |
combated effectively.
Miss Sarah ]. Hughes of the Back |
Bay section of Boston, woman of |
extraordinary energy and intimately |
acquainted with those perplexing ques- |
lions and conditions which are con- |
slant source of anxiety to boards of |
health. has conceived a plan for the !
establishment of vacancy commissions |
in Boston, New York and Philadelphia |
as the starting points of a national |
work. These vacancy commissions are
to be composed of a physician at the |
head, trained nurse of high standing
public spirited and practical lodging
house keeper and real estate woman
of philanthropic character, says Bos-
,ton correspondent of the Philadelphia
Record. Their powers. TO be conferred
either by city or state will be such as
to give them authority to enter all va
cant houses, inspect them and order
them put into a condition before occu-
pancy that will preclude all danger of
disease.
Miss Hughes has discovered that
landlords are in the habit of giving
| only a superficial cleaning to vacant
tenements and houses. that new layers
4 Of ln;cI
| layers. that germs are so thick on the
inside of the rank paper that they can
| be seen with the microscope and that
| crannies and crevices where disease
/ turks are utterly neglected, not being
| given even hot water and soap treat
/ ment when bichloride is an absolute
| necessity. No less than ten layers Of
; paper have been found by Miss Hughes
4 In Brookline. Mass, the richest town
| in the world, while five and six layers
| are common all over Boston in homes
i supposed 10 be far better than lodging
! and tenement houses. Observation has
| proved. according to Miss Hughes.
/ that disease and death have their orr
/ gin in such conditions. where the par
/ simony and shortsightedness of land
lords permit only superficial cleaning
that looks wei to the eye at first but
which covers only a whitened sepul-
h cher.
Miss Hughes has found that the two
most prevalent diseases arising from
these insanitary methods are con-
sumption and diphtheria. She has kept
close track of houses where the land
lords would neither make the neces-
Il Sary changes nor permit new tenants
to make them, with the conclusion
formed in an array of astounding facts
and figures proving that disease has
followed almost invariably and inevi-
tably; hence the advocacy of vacancy
commissions. Mayor George A. Hib-
bard of Boston has lent a willing ear
to the propaganda, while aldermen
and councilmen are greatly impressed
Others have joined In the new move
ment and the plan is to follow the
Boston work with similar establish
ments in New York and Philadelphia,
finally making it national in character.
Miss Hughes would have all the halls
painted from attic to coal scuttle She
would tear off the layers of paper to
the plaster and have it carried off in
barrels. She would have the walls
treated with hot water and soap, fol
lowed by bichloride, until there could
be no chance for germs to remain, and
I in this way she claims vast proper
ton of sickness would be prevented.
Miss Hughes is a sister of the cele-
brated physician and surgeon, DR..
i Laura A. c. Hughes. who delivered
two addresses before the American
Medical association at Chicago last
June and who won distinction in the
Spanish American war.