Fort Pierce news. (Fort Pierce, Fla.) 190?-1920, 1911-01-27
REPORT OF HEALTH OFFICER
Recommends that City Bond for
Sewerage System.
Executive Office State Board of Health
of Florida, Joseph Y. Porter, M. D.,
State Health officer.

state health Oncer.
Jacksonville, Fla, Jan. 20. 1911.
Hon, r. Whyte, Mayor Fort Pierce,
Florida
Dear Sir--As per your request to DR..
Byrd, / beg to submit for your consid-
GRAFTON, and for the consideration Of
the citizens of Fort Pierce, what con.
ceiye TO be the essential of sanitation
with reference to sewerage disposal.
10 the first place it should be under
stood by all that the State Board Of
Health is not endeavoring to inject it's
personality into local problem of this
kind, but merely to try to bring about
a better understanding of the problem
in hand. 1t is my experience that when
the time is ripe for the installation Of
sewer system in any Of our towns. the
only other thing needfu thenis to have
the problem clearly understood and the
people themselves will take the matter
up ane not let itIest until IT is disposed
of satisfactorily.
We have group of what might be
called sewage borne diseases. Heading
the list of this group is typhoid fever.
ln'order to appreciate the full signif-
canoe of this the following facts are to
be borne in mind: That typhoid fever
is caused by tiny vegetable organism,
the typhoid bacillus that this typhoid
bacillus is far too small to be seen with
the naked eye that when a person has
typhoid fever he gives off these organ
isms In countless millions, not only in
the stools but in the urine. so that the
excreta from typhoid patientsis a source
OF the greatest danger to others that
when these organisms get on food or in
milk or in water and are swallowed by
other people, they likewise contract ty-
phoid fever; that flies have the habit
OF feeding alternately in the open closet
and p che dining room and that they
are capable Of carrying hundreds 81
thousands of these tiny germs on their
feet; and that people not only give of
these typhoid organisms while they are
sick, but for weeks or months, and
sometimes years, after they get well Of
typhoid fever, 80 that the open closet
is the chief factor in the spread Of the
disease today.
There are other diseases like amoebtc
dysintery, Cochin-China diarrhea, and
other intestinal disorders,
transmitted In the same way.
Then another sewage borne disease
is hookworms. However, this is ac-
CURED in an entirely different way.
The soil becomes polluted by hook
worm sufferer who deposits thousands
Of eggs. These hatch into tiny worms,
and when barefoot child walks over
these tiny parasites they burrow into
The skin, reach the circulation, through
which they reach the lungs, are cough
I'd up and swallowed, finally getting
INTO the intestinal tract. Here they be-
come adult worms. So you see the
question OF primal Importance in pre-
gention of hookworm disease Is to pre-
vent general soil pollution, and the
open closet will serve that pur pose only
iairly we'll.
In sparsely populated community
7ery primitive means of sewage disposal
will serve, but as the aggregation Of
people gets larger and larger, better
Ind better methods have 70 be adopted
o keep the odor itself from becoming
m intolerable nuisance,
No town can be made healthy aslong
IS II has open closets. No town can be
made attractive as long as IL is subject
o NAL odors, that will OF necessity emil
nate from them. No town can hope to
row In this age without making itself
both healthy and attractive. It can be
put of from time TO time but sooner or
ater-it has got to meet this problem
ace to face; the sooner the better.
For instance One of our towns la the
tate postponed installing a sewage
plant until it got its water supply con-
animated, and rs result they had
'ome 250 cases of typhoid fever, and II
ieaths, among which were some Of the
best citizens OF the town. This done.
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