The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-31
FLIES AND DUST
ARE GIVEN KNOCK
DIR. HARDNESS REPORTS TO MAY
OR ON DANGER AHEAD If PRE-
CAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN BE-
FORE WARM WEATHER SETS. IN

Dr. r. 3. Hardness, city health officer,
in his monthly report, which was filed
with the mayor yesterday, calls attention
to the dust nuisance and the danger to
the city's health that lies In it, The
house fly also comes in for a few knocks
Dr.. Hardness laying particular stress
upon the need of destroying all breeding
places for the household pest
The report reads:
Birmingham Ala, March 30, 1910
To the Honorable Mayor and Board of
Aldermen, Birmingham, Ala:
Gentlemen-Beg to hand you my report
for the month of February, 1910 Aside
from the epidemic of measles which made
its appearance early In the month and
Is still prevailing there has been no
great prevalence of any one disease. We
nave escaped any danger of an epidemic
of smallpox; there have been 40 cases
reported for the month, but this, for
Greater Birmingham, as compared to 65
cases for Birmingham proper In Febru-
airy, 1908, is not bad, considering the ex-
tent to which smallpox is prevailing In
many cities.
l beg to again call attention to the
dust nuisance which we have with us so
continually. The clouds of binding dust
that so frequently fill our streets are not
only great Inconvenience to our citi-
zens, but the cause of many cases of ILL
ness In addition to this the property
damage done by dust is not small. 1t
would no doubt pay the business men In
the thickly populated districts to form q
cooperative association to bear the
small expense of keeping our principal
streets well sprnkled This would GER
tainly prevent much deterioration of
stocks of merchandise.
As the hot season approaches every
citizen who is interested In the health
of his family should begin to make war
on the breeding places of the house fly
Remember that the house fly is an I'M
necessary, as we'll as a deadly evil: re-
member, too, that the way to fight the
fly is to destroy his breeding place. The
fly breeds only in filthy stables and filthy
dry closets, so, that by keeping stables
and dry closets. clean we annihilate the
fly. All stables should be cleaned out
once in "a hours and the manure either
hauled entirely away from the premises,
or placed in fy-tight bins. If we could
get every citizen who owns a horse or
mule in the city limits to adopt this in
expensive procedure we would hardly be
able to appreciate the blessed absence of
the house fly, that we would certainly Sc
cure. Those who are not situated on
sanitary sewers can, at the cost of few
dollars, fit up dry closet that is fly
proof. The adoption of such receptacles
for all dry closets In the city would
certainly decrease our sick list very ma
terially in the course of single summer
and save many valuable lives.
Statistics closing the report show 1872
cases of measles, this disease having
three times the number of cases of any
other malady. A feature is that but five
of the cases were among negroes, 1877
being reported among white persons.
In the number of deaths tuberculosis
heads the list, claiming 81 victims; lobar-
pneumonia and violence coming next. To-
tai deaths were 2l7 of which 102 We're
white and 115 colored. Total births were
251, of which 1853 were white and So
colored The death rate per 1000 per an
mum is given as 1876 and the birth rate
10 70