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

208 APPENDIX.
for our ills.
1 had a cistern made iininediately and for more than lifteen
years we had no fever whatever.
"Six years ago I rented my home to a large Jewish family, who have
just informed me that they had no fever during the six years.
" We use cistern water in our store and not a single case of fever for
years among our employees. I have boarded at Hotel Farrar for six
years; we drink cistern water, and scarcely a case of fever in the hotel
during the six years."
3//'. John F. Shackieford, Tarhnro, Edgecombe conntij:
"At home we use cistern water entirely and have cistern thoroughly
cleaned out every November and catch no water after March 30th. Have
never had a case of malarial fever on the lot.
"At my mills we worked one hundred and twenty hands and used well
and spring water and had a great many cases of typhoid fever and dysentery,
so serious that I had a driven well, about ninety feet, put down
and got good water, and the result was have had little or no sickness
since."
Mr. L. Heilbroner,
Tarboro, Edgecombe county:
" I have been a resident of this place since 1868; have resided in three
different localities of the town, and prior to the fall of 1891 my family
used drinking water from wells not over twenty feet deep. Up to 1891
we rarely escaped malaria and had three cases of typhoid fever, one of
which terminated fatally. As a result my yearly doctors' bills were very
heavy, as we had malaria every year. In the fall of 1891 I built a cistern,
and I am hapjay to state since that time scarcely any member of
my numerous family has had a chill and my doctors' bills from that
source are comparatively nothing."
Hon. Kemp P. Battle, State University, Chapel Hill :
"In regard to the drinking water and malaria question, I am able to
make the following contribution: The late Mr. Paul C. Cameron, an
an observant and accurate man, and a very wise manager of slaves, told
me that he and the Hon. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, bought adjoining
plantations on the ^Mississippi river and removed many slaves to them
from North Carolina and Virginia at the same time. He (Cameron) provided
tanks and rain-water, while Mr. Mason did not. The result was
that the Cameron negroes were as
the jMason colony suffered greatly from malaria."
healthy as in North Carolina, while
Mr. George A. Spencer, Washington, Beaufort county :
"Up to the year 1887 we used well water in our family—that is, we
used it for about seven years previous to that time, and during that time
we had four cases of typhoid fever in our family besides cases of malaria.
Our doctor's bill during that time was near one thousand dollars. Since