The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1912-05-05

Typhoid fever is an acute infectious
disease and is due to the invasion of
microscopical organism, the bacil-
1us typhosus. A person suffering with
case Of typhoid fever discharges
millions of these tiny organisms daily.
Even after recovery the patient dis
charges them in the faces and
urine for weeks and sometimes even
years. A well-known instance of ty-
phoid carrier was typhoid Mary,
cook in New York. Everywhere she
closely did the disease follow her
that she was examined and the typ
hold bacillus was found in her dis
charges, 1t is possible that there
are persons in this community who
though perfectly well may be dis
charging typhoid germs on the groTnd
through some open closet, thus max
ing it very easy for flies to transmit
| the organism to the food Of some
well person who tries to be careful
| Typhoid fever like other diseases, is
| is no respector of persons, and will
attack careful person just as quick
| ly as a careless one if a loop-hole is
| left for the entrance of the organ
isms. A man may have his house well
| screened, but does he know that fly
did not take a sip of his milk before
the milk man brought it into his
home? Does he know that the cook
did not let fly accidentally take a
drink after the milkman did bring it
there? OF course, it might have been
a clean fly, one that had washed it's
| feet beforehand, but on the other
hand it might have been one that
had just come from a repast on
human discharges laden with typhoid
bacteria. These things are perfectly
possible and as long as a community
has conditions making 1t easy for
flies to come in contact with human
discharges, just so long will it have
typhoid fever to contend with
Typhoid fever is too costly for a
community to allow it to be preva-
lent An individual by being very
careful may keep it off for some
time, but it may creep in when he is
unaware and attack the most useful
member of his family, the conse-
quences of which, both as regards
the pocketbook and mental suffering,
it is needless to describe.
What is the remedy? AS com
munity we must do two things.
l. Make it impossible for flies to
come in contact with human dis
charges.
2 Rid the community of flies.
AS individuals we must lend our
support to measures aiming to bring
about these conditions, and if one is
so unfortunate as to have the dis
ease in his home, he must see to it
that all measures for protecting his
neighbors and the other members of
his family are carried out.
To meet the first condition we will
have to do away with the old style
open dry closet. When 1t is impos-
sibe to enter the sewer a sanitary
closet should be made so that the
discharges can be caught in a metal
receptacle, and kept from contaminat-
ing the soil. Besides causing the
spread of typhoid fever the open
closet has been responsible for the
spread of hookworm infection |
throughout the South. This alone
has caused loss of not thousands
but millions of dollars.
The fly problem is more difficult.
some communities, especial
ly in Europe, have practically done
away with this pest, it means much
educational work by the good citf
zens Of the community. 1t also
means that the good citizens must do
most of the work in Kidding the COM
munity OF flies because every per-
son who owns a horse or COW must
take care of his manure before flies
can have a chance to grow in It, It
takes fly about twelve to thirteen
days to hatch from the egg stage to
the full grown fly. If the manure
Is taken away from town or is Sc
curely screened before the flies can
hatch out, the people win find that
IS per cent of the flies will soon be
gone, for this is where the great ma
ority Of them breed.
In looking over list several days
ago OF men who own horses In the
city it was noticed that some Of the
best citizens had credit for main
tanning stables in a bad condition.
The writer has also visited very re-
Gently several stables that are prob
ably better kept than many others
In town. Fly larvae were invariably
found in the manure piles outside. AT
another stable where a very promi-
nent citizen keeps his COW the man
ure pile outside had numbers of fv 4
larvae in it, and in the stable there
were thousands of eggs. We cannot
get rid of flies until these conditions
are rectifed To rectify them is not
so much question of law as it is
the realization on the parte of every
individual citizen who owns or con-
trolls horses and COWS that he must
do his part.