Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-31
NORWICH HAS TWO
 CASES OF DfPHTHERI6

The weekly morbidity report issued by the state department of health for the week ending December 27, 1919, shows that Norwich has two cases of diphtheria. Groton and Stonington each have one There are no cases of whooping cough reported for Nor wich but Groton has eleven cases. shown for Norwich. nine for Jewett City and one for Griswold. Plainfield has ten cases and Sterling one. The only cases of typhoid fever in the county is one in Groton. Groton also has a case of humps. Norwich and Jewett City each have a case of scar let fever. Brooklyn haa two cases and Willimantic has three cases.
 The wood alcohol danger forms an important part of the weekly report. In spite of the warning issued last week death by wood alcohol poisoning has continued to increase. The re- port says:
 It was q striking instance of the irony of fate that the wood alcohol tragedies of last week began to occur within twenty-four hours after the newspapers published the warning is sued by the state department of health. As is customary in the publicity work of the health department the article dealing with the poisonous effects of wood alcohol was also sent to every foreign language newspaper printed in the state.
 The disaster should not he attribut- ed, however, to general ignorance of the dangers involved in the consump- ton of wood alcohol as q beverage. For many -'ears the newspapers have been reporting cases where death re- suited from it's use. so it may be ae- cepted as a fact that the peril is a matter of common knowledge. The victims probably knew the effects of the poison, but they did not know it was contained in the drink they bought for whiskey.
 The one thing which this great calamity emphasizes is the absolute i necessity for rigid enforcement of the prohibition law. Before the matter had been adjudicated by the supreme court of the United States. there ap- peared to be sufficient doubt as to the constitutionality of the law to justi- | fy a certain 1epiency in dealing with | law breakers; but the recent ruling of | the supreme court has removed that 1 doubt.
 1 At time when we are making great ] ElLoI Us lO [AIHeIlCaHlHS IflA lOGelgH | born element of our p6Dula tion the 1 open and fiagrant violation of the law 1 cannot but have an evil effect on re- spect for authority. Aside from the moral aspect of the matter. it is evi 1 dent that the stock of liquor availa- hle for bookkeeping is about depleted From now on it may be expected tha 1 the stuff sold Illegally must consist O
 the rankest grades of whiskey, anC | though the results may not come at quickly as in the case of wood alcohol
 they will be quite as deadly in the Ions run.
 In the outbreak of smallpox whiol
 occurred in Waterbury last week tn
 three cases reported were in people
 who had never been vaccinated. Ther
 were also two cases of varioloid. Tn
 source of infection was traced t0
 mild, unrecognized case which occur
 red in a child two weeks before tn
 present outbreak. The state and 10
 cal health officials feel no particula
 alarm over the situation, as Water
 bury is considered well protected a
 a result of the general vaccinatio
 treatment given at the time of the CD
 idemic which occurred there a fey
 years ago. There are very fed un
 vaccinated children in the schools, an
 a number of the factories make vac cination a requisite to securing em ployment. The present cases hay been placed under close quarantine.
 Last week a special delivery lette l ordering diphtheria antitoxin was de layed 36 hours because it was address ? ed Board of Health.l Hartford" in
 stead of to the State Department ( Health. In spite of the fact that tn
 state board of health was abolishe more than two years ago, many news r paper writers and some health off 5 cers still use the title of the old healt organization when referring to th r State Department of Health