The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1911-01-27
TIMELY HINTS
FOR CITY DADS
Tyhoid Fever Is Caused BY Tiny
Vegetable Organism
SEWERAGE A NECESSITY
Fever Bacillus Is Too Small to Be Seen
With Naked tye-Patients Give OFF
Organisms In Countless Millions

Jacksonville, Fla, Jan. goth, 1911.
Hon. Richard Whyte,
Mayor of Fort Pierce, Fla.
Dear Sir:
AS per your request to DR.. Byrd,
beg to submit for your consideration
and for the consideration of the citizens
of Fort Pierce, what | conceive to be
the essential of sanitation with refer
ence to sewerage disposal.
In 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
better understanding of the problem
in hand 1t is my experience that
when the time is ripe for the installa-
tion of sewer system in any Of our
towns, the only other thing needful
then is to have the problem clearly UNI
derstood and the people themselves
will take the matter up and not let it
rest until it is disposed of satisfactorily.
We have group of what might be
called sewerage borne diseases. Head
ing the list Of this group is typhoid
fever In order to appreciate the full
significance of this the following facts
are to be borne in mind: That typhoid
fever is caused by tiny vegetable or
ganism, the typhoid bacillus; that this
typhoid bacillus is far too small to be
seen with the naked eye; that when
person has typhoid fever he gives off
these organisms in countless millions,
not only in the stools but in the urine,
so that the excreta from typhoid pa
tients is source of the greatest dan
ger to others; that when these organ
isms get on food or in milk or in water
and are swallowed by other people,
they likewise contract typhoid fever;
that flies have the habit of feeding al
ternately in the open closet and the
dining room, and that they are capable
of carrying hundreds of thousands of
these tiny germs on their feet; and that
people not only give off these typhoid
organisms while they are SICK but for
weeks or months, and sometimes years,
after they get well of typhoid fever, so
that the open closet is the chief factor
in the spread Of the disease today.
There are other diseases, like amoebic
dysentery, Cochin China diarrhea, and
D.
transmitted in the same way.
Then another sewerage born disease
is hookworms. However, this is ac-
quired in an entirely different way.
The soil becomes polluted by a hook
worm sufferer who deposits thousands
of eggs. These hatch into tiny worms
and when barefoot child walks over
these tiny pharasites they burrOw into
the skin, reach the circulation, through
which they reach the lungs. are coughed
up and swallowed, finally getting into
the intestinal tract Here they become
adult worms, so you see the question
Of primal Importance in prevention of
hookworm disease, is to prevent gener-
al soil pollution, and The open closet
will serve that purpose only fairly well.
In a sparsely populated community
very primitive means Of sewerage dis
oosal will serve, but AS the aggrega-
ton of people gets larger and larger,
better and better methods have to he
adopted to keep the odor itself from be-
coming an intolerable nuisance.
No town can be made healthy as
ong as it has open closets. No town
IAN be made attractive as long as it is
subject to NAL odors. that will of neces-
'ity eminate from them. No town can
rope to grow in this age without maxi
ne itself both healthy aud attractive.
It can be put off from time to time out
sooner or later it has got to meet this
problem face to face; the sooner the
PETER
For instance: One of our towns in the
tate postponed installing sewerage
liant until it got its water supply con-
and as result they had
ome $50 cases of typhoid fever, and IL
leaths. among which were some of the
,est citizens Of the town. This done,
hey were ready enough to install
sewerage plant, which they have now
md very creditable one. | refer now
o Barlow.
Now il the people of Fort Pierce can
ee their way clear to issue the neces-
airy bonds for water and sewerage dis
'osal, to my mind they make no mis-.
axe. However, it is problem for
hem to solve.
Assuring you that the Board is al.
Ways glad to render whatever assist
nee it can, am,
Very Truly Yours,
Os. Y PORTER, State Health Officer.