New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-02-04
State Attacking
Typhoid Menace
Water Mains to be Flushed
With Germ Destroy
ing Solution.
New Cases Are Of Mildel
Form. Utmost Care
Must be Observed.

That New Ulm has only very mar
rowly escaped very serious typhoid
epidemic of dangerous type seems
cert ain at this time. 1t still remains
to be seen: morever, whether the eli y
really has es' aped or whether there is
still worse to come Already one
death has resulted from the disease
and there are at present some % cases
under the care of the doctors, some of
them still very serious. It appears,
however, that the cases now develop
ing are Of a mllder form and the pre-
cautions advised, if followed faithfully,
will finally succeed in elimin ating the
danger that now menaces.
Since the Review printed the first
warning of the trouble last week there
have been Investigations and tests and
explanat ons and questions galore.
Health Officer Seifert returned at once
fr N Chicago where he had gone to
take a special course in medicine. DR..
Sehoch received returns from the blood
tests in two Of his cases showing con-
eluslvely that the disease to be contend
ed With was TYPHOID and not hog
cholera CT pneumonia. The next step
was the visit oil DR.. W. P. Greene of
the State Health Beard, who spent two
days here, visiting. the patients who
seemed to have he disease or to be
threatened with it. His report sent to
Health Officer Seifert the latter part.of
the week showed 70 positive cases Of
the disease. He urged the employ ment
OF visiting nurse to assist ia the
proper care Of the patients SO that all
precautions would be observed with
reference to preventing the spread.
Miss Minnie Schramm Of Minneapolis
was secured and has arrived to take
charge Of this work.
Thursday evening committee Of
City Councillors and tho Health Board
met with B. M. Mohler of the State
Health Board and inv stigated the con-
dition of the wells at the city station.
They found that there was space
between the inner and outer crsings of
the we'll which had been found suspi-
cIous last November and that this
space might possibly furnish an open
ing for coptamin alton to enter the sys-
tenn. In order to ascertain the proba-
bility oe this it was dec ded to drain the
cistern IN wi ich the we'll in question is
located. This was done SATURDAY and
Mr.. Mohler took samples Of the water
in all three wells ard at various tips
under conditions that would provide for
an absolute test. The bottles in which
the water was taken are stirilized by
being dry heated to an extreme degree
and the mouth Of the pipes We're famed
to destroy all possible bacciili so that
any contamination developing under
the tests would be known to come from
the water and that alone. When the
cistern was emptied several cracks were
found in the walls, small to be sure, but
large enuf for foreign matter to get in.
An investigation of the milk supply
y of the families afflicted with typhoid
showed that they were getting their
milk from 9 ditfert mt supplies.
The meat supply Of the city is also
scattered and that leaves but one COM
mon source of infection, the water. At
the time the reports were made by the
State Health Board IN October and
November it was shown that colon
bacilli existed in the water from the
we'll that was suspected. Typhoid bac-
CT Ii are never found unless the colon
, baccilAi are present and when the lat
ter are present it always indicates that
there is contamination from human ex-
cretions aud this is the source of
typhoid contamination also. Therefore
when the colon baccilli are found it is
safe to suspect the presence of the
typhoid germs also. For that reason
the we'll was ordered out of commission
and it has been ascertained almost posi-
lively that this order was followed to
! the letter with the exception of the two
y purs that water was pumped from it
for the November test.
The State Health Board felt so con-
dent that there was perfect control Of
the situation that they did not take
any steps at that time to purify the
water in the mains, but now, after the
third test, while the Board will not