1893-1894 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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cians and niirse:^. Tliey were met witli prompt response. Hardly a home
was left untouched by the hand of the destroyer, and the well were not
strong enough in numbers to nurse the sick. The State Board of Health
set up a rigid investigation into the cause of the epidemic, and for a long
time their efforts seemed without avail. But one day in tlie wanderings
of these tireless searchers they went well up the mountain side above
the reservoir. Below them in the valley lay the town over which brooded
the shadow of death, and between them and the stricken village was the
reservoir full of sparkling water, glistening in the happy sunshine; its
surface broken into wavelets by the balmy wind that gently drifted out
of the mountain side and towards the valley.
It seemed too much to lay
the disease on that water, luit not far away they found a cabin which contained
quite a family. Inquiry elicited the fact that during the winter
previous to the epidemic one or more members of this family had sickened
with a fever, some may have died, but of this point I am not sure.
The frank description of tlie sickness made it very clear that these people
had suffered with typhoid fever, and when the inmates were asked
what had been done with the watei-y di'jectu of the patients, they said
they were thrown out on the snow. The spring came and with it the
thaw, and the germ-laden water was poured into the reservoir with such
death-dealing results that men's heai'ts failed them in the great emergency.
Don't call this a disposition of Providence, but a careless indisposition
to protect the water-shed that supplied their reservoir. The
loss of time and lives that resulted was only equalled by the flood
that
swept away the neighboring village of Johnstown.
Every foot that one digs into the ground for a well drains two feet surface;
in other words, the radius of drainage is nearly twice the depth of
the well. Add to this danger the inclines, too often existing between the
kitchen back windows, the stables and the middens, all
tlie
readily leading
water towards the spring or well, and the danger to which people
recklessly expose themselves is fearful. The wonder is that they escape
disease in some other shape, even if it fails to come as typhoid fever.
The closet or midden can be made with a water-tight box or pail for the
reception of excreta. Dry ashes, mixed with slaked lime and charcoal,
can be kept in this outhouse, and a small portion of it be used whenever
the midden is visited. The method is cheap, rational and reasonably
effective. The receptacle, whether box or pail, can be removed,
emptied of its contents in a safe locality too far away from the premises
to affect the well or spring, and be returned clean for use again. Of
course in case there should be typhoid fever in the house special precautions
must be observed; but of this later on. It is better to prevent than
to attempt to cure. There is some trouble attached to the care of the
premises indicated above, but it is worth it. If your neighbor is careless
your persistent cleanliness may be the cause of his reform, and the