The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1915-05-26
To Human Life Every
where Just Now.
DEADLY PRESENCE EXPLAINED
In An Able Paper BY DR.. Itch
enor Read Before Med
ical Board.
HE STATES IMPORTANT FACTS

Hartford, KY, May IA, 1915.
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of
the Ohio County Medical Society
presume that when you gave me
place on your splendid program re-
questing a paper on general santa
ton, you expected me to forward
the movement of our sanitation
propaganda that was instituted at
our last meeting of the Ohio County
Board of Health If I am correct In
assumption will proceed by saying
that what l may advise with refer
ence to the prevention of typhoid
fever is largely true of all conta-.
gious and infectious diseases, and that
at some future time l will be glad
to write paper on any of the mala-
dies which general sanitation would
ameliorate or prevent. The meas
ures to prevent typhoid fever are
we'll known to all physicians.
A problem in the average COM
munity, not only in Ohio county but
almost everywhere, is how to get in
telligent public sentiment sufficient
ly aroused to make the enforcement
of the necessary measures feasible.
In the United States about 45O.-
900 persons are incapacitated and
about $4,000 are killed by typhoid
fever every year. A large proper
ton of the cases are in persons who
are at their period of maximum
earning capacity. Thus the nation
suffers from this disease tremen-
dous economic loss amounting to
many times over what the work re-
quired to prevent such loss would
cost.
Typhoid fever is filth-born dis
ease. 1t is we'll that the people
should know that it is caused by
germs which are parasites and
which depend for their perpetuation
upon multiplication in the bodies OF
human beings. The germs are dis
charged from the bodies of persons
in their stools and urine.
To cause the disease in other per-
sons the germs must be swallowed.
Every person who has typhoid fever
has recently swallowed some ty-
phoid germs which have come in
some way from the excreta of some
infected person.
Unless we put into our mouths
and swallow something which has
been soiled or contaminated with
human filth. we will not have ty-
phoid fever.
Therefore 1t behooves the physi-
clan to inform the general public
how to avoid swallowing the human
filth which is more or less always
present in every community. To
tell them that tire house fly is the
great common carrier Of typhoid fe-
yer and that by its industry thous-
ands are slain every year, is not an
exaggeration. To say that We eat
with our arch enemy almost every
day during the summer months and
allow him the glorious privilege OF
bathing In our buttermilk and then
drying his legs on our bread, and
that he often exacts as price for
these privileges the death of our
friend or loved one. is not an over
drawn picture. We not only refuse
to challenge this loathsome enemy
of mankind by screening, trapping
and swatting. but We furnish de-
lightful breeding place by leaving
the manure In our stables all the
summer where they multiply by the
teeming millions; also the garbage,
dishwater and filth of all kinds that
are showed out the back kitchen
door to the flies delight and that
they may multiply by the thousands.
Not satisfied with this courteous
treatment of the fly, we carelessly
provide an unsanitary toilet where
ueir chief sport is to bath their
legs In excreta. containing typhoid
germs and probably many other m
fictitious microbes. and then as a
mere matter Of courtesy and In re-
turn for our generosity, the "pesky"
ny makes us an extended visit at the
dinner hour He doesn't need an
Introduction. for we recoenizs that
II a he BY the -four that we sprink-
led on his back one hour previously