Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-02
wv ASHINGTON, May 28.-A ray of sun
wv shine in gloomy maze of mortal
W ity statistics is an item showing


w ity statistics is an item showing
that typhoid fever is rapidly becoming a rare
disease in the United States.
Since people have understood that impure
water is largely responsible for typhoid, the
percentage of cases has fallen off steadily.
When the country is thoroughly organized
for clean drinking water, typhoid will be as
rare in occurrence as smallpox, and as much
feared.
In the past year there were 1907 deaths
from typhoid in the sixty-eight largest cities
of this country. This makes the death rate
for this disease 81 per 100000 population,
big drop compared with the figures OF 1900
and 1910. Then typhoid death rate OF 30,
so or even 100 in 100000 people was not
unusual for a city.
In those days, European capitals were far
in advance of our cities in clean water pre-
cautions. Even in 1908 New York had twelve
deaths from typhoid and Chicago fifteen, as
compared with London five, Paris eight,
Stockholm one and Berlin four. Now New
York has brought it's rate down to "A and
Chicago LA remarkable reduction--and
many other cities have done as we'll
Smaller communities for the most part
have not been able to advance so rapidly.
Some towns have underestimate the impor-
lance of pure water to the extent of thinking
they could not afford the precautions 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
thought to the possibilities of Infection Re-
Gently 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 pure water to
the public is a ruling by which the public
health service is to supervise the drinking
water on steamships 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 sat
sfactory drinking water to passengers.
Boat Inspection
In the past some of these boats have been
Ilamentably, careless in choosing the source or
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 con-
taminate 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 main
! tanned on trains. Inspection of water on
trains has been in effect for some time and
has been successful in spite of predictions
that agents could not follow up moving
| train to see that it did not fill it's drinking
| tank from an unsafe source.
In another way body blow is being aimed
at the typhoid germ Typhoid incubation
kept down the epidemic which usually fol-
lows war conditions, and this precaution is
gradually being adopted by civilians, espe-
cally those who live in districts where ty-
phoid IS most prevalent. The trouble with
incubation is that people regard it as an
infalible charm against typhoid, and If they
hear of an inoculated person contracting the
disease, they decide that the process is
worthless.
What incubation does is TO increase the
persons resistance, so that he is able to
throw off much greater number of typhoid
bacteria than he otherwise could. If he is
exposed to food or water polluted to an eX-
IRENE degree he may take the disease.
few of our soldiers did contract typhoid in
this way, but the number was insignificant
compared with the number that contracted
the disease in previous wars.
1t is an interesting tribute to our grow
ing wisdom that we do not argue that water
brings typhoid therefore we should not
drink water. That was the way doctors
the most learned of their day-reasoned less
than a century ago. Only few medicos VEN
tured to suggest that water might not be al
ways harmful-there was so much of it that
it seemed unlikely it all poisonous.
AS matter of fact the water of those
days was more apt to be dangerous as a beV-
erage than not. Water had begun to be con-
nected with certain diseases but the idea of
urfying it and continuing to drink quanti-
'os of it would have been cried down as an
eXtravagant theory.
The fear of Water
People who were not easily aroused to
the deadly properties of glass of water were
permanently cured of drinking by lantern
slides showing drops of water highly magni-