The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1919-04-12

rying it to tie room where an effort
is made to swallow the bread, meat
and potatoes.
Any scarlet fever, diphtheria or
erysipelas patients on the lower floor
must 60 into the hall and carry back
their food. OF course there is danger
Of infection from germs left in the
hall by some other patient. There
also is danger of leaving infection
for the other patient. Having small
pox is.no bar to catching the scarlet
fever.
OF course pest house cannot pro-
vide many cushions or any uphol-
stored furniture. The chairs are OF
the common wooden kitchen variety.
Cheap iron bedsteads hold up springs
of a sort and mattresses filed with
excelsior. Such mattresses may be
more sanitary but they certainly are
not very grateful to sick and aching
bodies. Demand for a new bedstead
recently was met by buying a rickety
article at Superior secondhand
store.
Toilet Facilities Sadly Lacking.
The toilet facilities are the great
est crime against comfort, decency
and civilization. The buildings are
without water, therefore lack modern
closets. Each and every patient, at
all able to hobble out there, must go
to an old-fashioned privy 100 feet
from the main building.
The vault is covered by q box seat
with hole on the top, such as the
prairie pioneers used. A scarlet fever
sufferer sits down and sheds germs
on that seat. A smallpox patient may
leave infectious virus there. The past
winter there was neither chloride OF
lime nor deodorizer provided. The
smell in the place was not at all like
that of rose garden.
That old box seat would not be SO
bad if one could sit on 1t in comfort.
One patient declares that when he
was, there, the vault was filled clear
up to the seat with human excrement,
which made it desirable, if not i'm
perative, that he squat on the seat,
above the, hole, on his heels, like a
primitive savage in the woods.
OF course, If a patient is too i'll to
drag feet to the privy or in too dan
gerous stage of contagious disease
to make it safe to expose face and
body to winter weather, Mr.. or Mrs.
Daley must trot about with rural
chamber china, which practice does
!; not give patients a true sample of
"breezes from Araby."
Object Lesson for Duluthians.
The patrons of the Lowell school
! in Duluth, who roar so loudly about
toilet conveniences in that temple of
learning, should inspect the privy at
the Superior pest house. They then
might not be 30 dissatisfied with what
they have.
| A backwoodsman's stomach would
be turned by that privy at the pest
,, house. A lumberjack would quit his
job if compelled to use it. Sufferers
from contagious diseases-teachers,
bankers, nurses, clerks, shipyard
workers and others-are compelled to
use it no matter what their danger
or distaste.
The crying need of the city of Su-
perior is modern, sanitary Isolation
hospital. Many a citizen declares
that it is much more needed just now
than municipal auditorium.
/ Medical men also declare that the
city needs municipal chemist. One
always has been provided but since
Mr.. w. Strasser died in Madison of
the influenza a few months ago, his
place has not been filed. With a
competent city chemist, local physi-
clans would have no excuse for mis-
taking smallpox for chicken pox.
Patients at the hospital also COM
plain about the carelessness of physi-
clans who visit patients. They come
and go without fumigation, change of
outer clothing or other precaution.
Complaint is made that one doctor,
in particular, had a habit during the
winter of rambling through the old
shack and then going downtown to
other patients without taking proper
care against infection.
Rubber Coat Is Missing.
Once upon a time, a rubber coat
hung behind the front door of the
place. Visiting physicians donned
that, leaving outer raiment beyond
the zone Of possible contagion. To-
day, that coat is missing and for
gotten.
At the present time, DR.. p. G. Nc