Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-10-23
The Community Health

sasessna oos hundred and saxseen -
NE desp-watses we're Of good aual~
~. torty-ave wess oed and sixteen
doubtful nut 10 of the I'll shallow>
wen waters could b used, 800 were
Snsauivocally bad. ana forty-thrse wsrs
Of doubtful quality. A large psrcent-
age Of the waters used ~ the fAmuleA
In which typhoid fsvsr had occurred
was unsquivocally bad. y
With the devolopnent OF the country.
the Srowth Of the population and the
greater congestion In living centsrs,
the danger Of pollution Of natural wat
sr-supplies 10 vastly Increased. Even
wells can DO improved and rendered
less subject to pollution II proper
methods Of driving them deeper are
employed. Tho best safeguard. ac-
cording to medical expert advics, -
the education Of the public to the un-
DERIVING facts Of contamination 20 that
by the application Of common sense the
sources Of danger can DO avoided by,
property-holdsrs ana others.
clndsrs
I've got Q cinder IN my eye!" How
frequently We hear this expression In
the street, especially when the air =
dlled with dust and smoke. or any
whore beneath the network Of elevated
tracks. While this may seem trivial
mishap. ana often 10 II the foreign sub.
stance IL Immediately removed from
the eye. yet Il - often . most serious
thing. and the public At large little
realizes that . seemingly unimportant
accident Of this sort may result In SER
ious and permanent impairment OF Wis
ion. The membrane covering the eye
bah u q very delicate structure. and
when even tiny speck Of any foreign
matter lodges on 1t II quickly becomes
imbedded. Tho irritation thus set up
causes the person to wink the eye fre-
quently. and each time the liz closes.
rubbing against the particle. It tends
to imbed It still farther into the mem
brane. The efforts of sympathizinR
friends to remove the Offending speck
with handkerchief or wooden tooth
pick instead Of helping tho situation,
usually results IN making bad matter
worse. from the damage thus done to
tho tissue Infection 10 then easily
carried deeper into the tissue, and an
ulcer results. II the process reaches
this stage. even II the cause should be
~SssPASSSAy AVhhSv0AS ~ WOui0 P0Tu6QA
be too late to prevent q scar after
the ulcer heals. & might be 20 faint
as to be hardly distins uishable. yet IL
1t Is situated just in front Of the pu-
pill, ~ very frequently happens. the
vision Of the eye would be seriously and
perhaps permanently impaired.
The public should understand the
seriousness Of such occurrences. and
public spirit should be aroused to the
point Of insisting on municipal regu-
lation. eliminating smoke and dust A.
far as possible from city streets. Hav-
ing the streets washed every night, an
is done in many Of the European cit
les. instead Of having them swept dur
ing the day, and prohibiting the burn
ing Of soft coal within the city limits,
would 60 long way toward removing
this evil.
Bad Taste in rrsatsd Watsr. euppIiss
It is surprising, a. pointed out by
Lederer. that 10 little attention has
been paid to the question Of removing
the taste from. water-supplies treated
with chlorinated lime. In this country
especially. whore the treatment Of
many large public supplies has
been carried out with brilliant sani-
tary success, there mas oeen IfeQuens
and often bitter complaint about tho
taste OF the treated water. AS well
known, antagonism has developed In
many places between water boards and
health departments as result OF these
conditions. On one side is the recog-
milton that the danger from water
borne diseases 10 greatly reduced by
the hpyochlorite treatment; on the
other IL the necessity OF having 70
bear the burden Of daily complaint
and to meet the indignant protests Of
Thousands Of aggrieved water drinkers
As Lederer shows a simple method for
removing the taste from hypochlorite-
treated water 10 the use Of sodium
thiosulphate. He has Obtained good
results in the elimination Of taste in
Lake Michigan water treated In this
way. II must be remembered that thi-
osulphate stops the germicidai action
80 that II 10 necessary to allow the
chlorin to act for ten to fifteen min
utes before the thiosuiphate Is added.
In this way. says the Journal Of the
American Medical Association. water
can be made both safe and palatable.