Pueblo chieftain., 1921-05-31
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

Warrington. d. c.. May ga ray
tality statistics Is an item showing
that typhoid fever Is rapidly becoming
a rarc disease in the United States.
Since people have understood that
impure water is largely responsible for
typhoid. the percentage OF cases has
fallen of steadily. When the country
Is thoroly organized for clean drink
ing water. typhoid will bc As rarc an
occurrence as smallpox, and a. much
feared.
In the past year there werc l.co1
deaths from typhoid in tho SIS largrt
cities of this country. This makes tho
death rate for this disease 81 per
100000 population. big drop COM
pared with tho figures OF 1890 and 1910
Then = typhoid death rate of 80. So or
even 100 in 100 600 people was not un-
usual for a city.
In those days, European capitals
were far in advance of our cities in
clean water precautions. Even in 1905
New York had L. deaths from typhoid
and Chicago. Is, as compared with
London S. Paris s, Stockholm /. and
Berlin g. Now, New York has brought
its rate down to 20. and Chicago to
LA remarkable rcduction-and many
other cities have done as well.
Smaller communities for the mos,
part have not been able to advance
so rapidly. Some towns have under
estimated the importance OF pure
water to tho extent OF thinking they
could not afford the precautions used
in cities. As for the farmer. depend
ent on his own farm for his water sup
ply, he has been apt to conclude that
cold. clear water was bound to be
sanitary without giving thought to
tho Possibilities OF infection. Recently
hn
special effort to point out to the farmer
tho principles of n pure water supply.
Ths latest step in insuring pure water
to tho public Is ruling by which tho
Public Health service Is to supervise
tho drinking water on steamships in
this country. This means that all the
excursion steamers and other pssseng-
or steamers on our rivers. and lakes.
and along the coast must furnish sat
isfacory drinking water TO passengers
In tho past some OF these boats have
been lamcntabiy careless in choosing
tho source Of their water supply ON
the Great Lakes some steamers have
been known to draw water for drink
i Ing purposes close to- shore where SOW
age and drains were sure to contami-
| nate II. 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 irainf. 1nspcrtior
Of water on trains has bccn in effect
for some time and has been success
full in spite OF predictions that aEentg
could not follow up a moving train
to soc that 1t did not hll its drinking
tank from an unsafe source
In another way a body blow is be-
ing aimed at tho typhoid germ. Ty-
phoid innoculstion kept down the cpl
dcmic which usually follows war CON
L., l. u
ually being adopted by civilians. cspe-
c1aliy t.rosc-who live in districts wherc
typhoid is most prevalent. The trouble
with innocuiation is that people re-
gard 1T as an infallible charm against
typhoid. ard II they hear of an innoc-
ulatcd person contracting the disease.
they decide that the process Is worth
less
what innocuiation does is to increase
the persons resistance. so that he is
able to throw on much greater
number Of typhoid bacteria than he
otherwise could. IL he Us exposed to
food or water polluted to an extreme
degree he may take the disease few
of our soldiers did contract typhoid in
this way. but tho number was insiE-
nificsnt compared with the number
that contracted the disease in previous
wars.
II is an interesting tribute to our
growing wisdom that we do not argue
that water brings typhoid. therefore
wc should not drink water. That was
tho way doctors-the most learned of
their dsy-r.ssonrd less than a CEN
tury ago. only tav medacoA ven