Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-08-07
WATER.

sons DO not drink IL In eumClenI guam
titles to maintain a good degree of
physical health. No other article OF
diet enters so completely into the con-
struction and support of all living
water, and it is this very omnipres-
ence of water acting on that peculiar
twist of the human mind that leads
US to treat familiar things with reck-
less contempt that results in our GRIM
inal Indifference to water supplies.
AS a matter of fact, water is an ele-
ment of vast significance in the main
tenance of human life and efficiency,
and to secure and maintain health the
individual citizen must know the truth
concerning this most important part
of our diet.
The scaly cells on the surface of our
skin, our hair and the tips of our
nails are the only parts of our bodies
that can live in air.
Under favorable conditions we can
live for 80 days or more without food,
bu. not more than a few minutes with
out air and only about three days with
out water. Were we to spend a mate
rial part of the money We squander
no doubt We should be vastly more
efficient, certainly we would be hap
pier, for there can be no real happi-
ness without good health.
Deprived Of water for three days we
become delirious and die from poison
ing by our own waste products. A
steady stream of water flowing
through our bodies is necessary to
wash out and carry away the toxins
resulting from cell activity or we
must inevitably succumb to disease;
and to keep this cleansing stream flow
ing In sufficient volume we should
drink about two quarts of fluid daily
Absolutely pure water is not found
on earth. Even freshly fallen rain wa
ter contains some foreign matter, the
amount and character of which de-
ponds on the degree of contamination
Of the air through which 1t falls. From
the moment the vapor Is condensed
into water in the clouds every drop
that falls begins to soak up something
out Of everything 1t touches on its
journey to the sea, so that when we
use any of It from any source in our
diet we are really drinking the waste
water from natures laundry after she
has washed all out outdoors with it
70 o<o
ards. water is. pure" and fit to drink
IL 1t is more or less clear. does not
smell bad and does not quickly orig
mate some clearly defined disease in
the body Of the drinker. That 1t con-
tains pathogenic organisms or pto-
maines from the action of bacteria
upon decaying organic matter is dem
onstrated only by some unusually Sc
we're outbreak of disease in a commu-
nifty. and generally not until then is
it even suspected that the water may
be impure" If you are in i'll health
have your drinking water analysed
and the source of supply investi-
gated.
Taking typhoid fever as a gauge, let
us compare conditions in several parts
of the world. Germany, with a popu-
lation density of 310.9 per square mile
(more than ten times greater density
than our own, had in the same Pc
Rod Of time typhoid death rate of
Al, compared with our 23.5 per 1OO,-
600 inhabitants; the Netherlands, with
45S.S density, death rate of 5.4; Swift
zerland, with density of 242.7, a NOR
tality Of 3.S. and England and Wales.
with density Of 372.6, a death rate Of
only six per 100000 Inhabitants. COM
pared with the United States with a
density Of only 800 and a mortality
of 23.5.
The city of Chicago in 1891 had a
typhoid rate of 1873 per 100000 in
habitants. An investment Of $4,000
900 approximately $27 per capita for
the population Of the year 1912 in a
drainage canal and the adoption of
other reasonable sanitary precautions
reduced the typhoid fever death rate
in 1912 to only rs per 100000 inhabit-
ants, probably the lowest rate ever
recorded for an American city of more
than 100000 inhabitants. Had the 1891
typhoid rate prevailed in Chicago in
1912 there would have been approx
mately 10000 cases Of typhoid fever,
with approximately 3.S7S deaths: but
there were only. 173 deaths from ty-
phoid fever in Chicago in 1912, hence q
probable saving Of 3.7O5 lives for the
city in that year.
Obviously this demonstrates what
may be done in the prevention of dis
ease. II we are as intelligent as we
assume ourselves to be, and there is
not something fundamentally and rad
ically wrong with our entire system of
doing things, why this difference in
the same period between Europe, or
even the city of Chicago, and the to-
tai vital statistics registration area
Of the United States? And what about
the non-registration area? Good health
and long life can be purchased; why
do We not buy It?