Warren sheaf., 1912-01-18
SOURCES OF INFECTION

SOURCES OF INFECTION
rom an Article "The New public
Health" by Dr.. il. W. mn II The
Journal Of the MINI. State Medical
Association. s
The old style sanitary insnector.,
was expected to, and usually did, con
demn' everything in sight. from the
4 earDage-pall at the back door to the
Plumbing in the bathroom. But dis
ease continued, because he was con-
oemnlng, as rule, so far as health
was concerned, things largely sincom.
petant, irrelevant and immaterial ),
What availed it that the garha pe-na i
was emptied every day or yent-pipe
placed on the bath-water- waste-trap.
the milklnan delivered scarlet-fe.
Ser-lnfected milk at the door, or an
unrecognized case of measles sat next
the children at school?
The New Public Health sees in the
garbage-pail merely place where
Mes are fed and, possibly, bred. But
the lies cannot carry infection if in
fected discharges are not accessible to
them. Defective plumbing" such a
nightmare twenty years ago, has been
conclusively shown to have nothing to
do with disease-generation or disease.
propagation whatever, unless per-
chance there be actual gross leakage
OF infected sewage. The unventilated
front parlor could not produce tuber-
culosis in hundred years; diphtheria
does not develop from the family well,
and typhoid fever Tin Minnesota) is
but seldom properly traceable to that
source either. The modern public
health man cares nothing so far as re-.
striction of disease and death is con-
cerned, for the dirty back yard or the
damp cellar in themselves, but only as
they may enter into the transmission
of infected discharges. Then, at once,
they become of vital Importance. The
sanitary inspection of the modern
sanitarium so far as relates to infec-
tion, begins and usually ends with the
search for (a) the infected individual;
(b) the routes of spread of the sordin-
ary associates in ordinary life. These
latter are sought for, not because Of
danger from such uninfected dis
charges but rather because infected
discharges, introduced into and follow
ing the same well-beaten paths, will
necessarily reach the same mouths.
TO locate all the infective persons
and to guard all their discharges
would be wholly sufficient but since
this cannot always be done perfectly
it is well to guard also the routes
which INDICATED infection may take
Has environment, then, nothing to
do with infectious diseases? Enivron-
ment acts in two ways: First, unequi-
vocally and without reserve, such en-
vironments as permit or encourage or,
still worse, necessitate the exchange
of human excreta in ordinary life, con-
tribute in the long run to the spread of
disease since they insure a similar ex-
change Of infected excreta so soon as
the latter are introduced. Let us
take one environment evil, overcrowd-
ing, as an example. OvercroWding, if
combined with lack of discipline and
order, and lack of facilities for wash
ing especially for the washing of
hands, contributes to the spread Of in
fectious diseases; but not il itself, nor
at all unless infection be introduced
into the community. Then overcroWd-
ing, because it tends to insure that
the infection will spread rapidly and
extensively. But overcrOwding, it
the overcrowded be disciplined, intelli-
gent, anu Idhe PIOpCA y pA0S1ueAOno A0NS'so.sA11o ~ ~
avoid exchange of excreta, does not
neaessitate the spread Of infection,
even if it be introduced. On the other
hand, infection may spread, and fre-
auently does, without overcroWding, if
the essential factor Of such spread ex-
ist, i. e., the transmission Of infected
excreta.
Swedish American State Bank Elects
Oficers.
The annual meeting of the stock
holders of the Swedish American
state Bank was held on Tuesday All
the old directors and officers were re-
elected, as follows: Directors, -
-. ,.-1or, Iohn nap0herg u M Oh