The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-05-31


ray Of sunshine in . gloomy maze
Of mortality statistics is an item
showing that typhoid fever 10 rap
idly becoming . rare disease In the
United States.
Since people have understood
that impure water 10 largely re-
sponsible for typhoid. the percent
age Of cases has fallen OF steadily.
When the country Is thoroughly or
ganized for clean drinking water,
typhoid will be as rare In occur
renee as smallpox, and ~ much
feared.
In the past year, there were 1907
deaths from typhoid in the 6S larg-
est cities of this country. This
makes the death rate for this dis
ease 81 per 100000 population, q
big drop compared with the figures
of 1900 and 1910. Then q typhoid
death rate OF IS, so, or even 100 in
100, 900 people was not unusual for
a city.
In those days. European capitals
were far In advance Of our cities in
clean water precautions. Even in
1908 New York had u deaths from
typhoid and Chicago is. a. COM
pared with London s. Paris 8,
Stockholm 1, and Berlin 4. Now,
New York has brought its rate
down to "a, and Chicago to LA
remarkable reduction-and many
other cities have done as well.
Smaller communities for the most
part have not been able to advance
so rapidly. Some towns have under
estimated the importance Of pure
water to the extent of thinking
they could not afford the precau-
tions used in cities. AS for the
farmer, dependent on his own farm
for his water supply, he has been
apt to conclude that cold, clear
water was bound to be sanitary,
without giving a thought to the
possibilities of infection. Recently
the government has been making a
special effort to point out to the
farmer the principles of a pure
water supply.
The latest step in insuring water
to the public is a ruling by which
the public health service is to sup
ervise the drinking water on steam
ships in this country. This means
that all the excursion steamers and
other passenger steamers on our
rivers and lakes, and along the
coast must furnish satisfactory
drinking water to passengers.
Boat Inspection.
In the past some of these boats
have been lamentably careless in
choosing the source of their water
supply. On the Great Lakes some
steamers have been known to draw
water for drinking purposes close
to shore where sewage and drains
were sure to contaminate it. Cases
of typhoid traced to trips on these
| boats were common.
Boat inspection by public health
service officials will be similar to
that now maintained on trains. In
spection of water on trains has
been in effect for some time and
has been successful in spite Of pre-
dictions that agents could not fol-
low up moving train to see that
it did not fill its drinking tank from
an unsafe source.
In another way body blow is
being aimed at the typhoid germ.
Typhoid innoculation kept down
the epidemic which usually follows
war conditions, and this precaution
is gradually being adopted by civil
ians, especially those who live in
districts where typhoid is most
prevalent. The trouble with in
incubation is that people regard it
as an infallible charm against ty-
phoid, and if they hear of an in
noculated person contracting the
disease. they decide that the pro-
cess is worthless.
What innoculation does is to in
crease the persons resistance, SO
that he is able to throw of a much
greater number of typhoid bacteria
than he otherwise could. II he is
exposed to food or water polluted
to an extreme degree he may take
the disease. A few of our soldiers
did contract typhoid in this way,