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

Q6 NOETII CAEOLIXA BOARD OF HEALTPI.
to the report of cholera in Northampton county that had
appeared in the letter of a newspaper correspondent.
During the da}- similar inquiries were made of the Secretary
by parties as far distant as Ohio.
Having heard nothing from Dr. H ^^^ Lewis, the Superintendent
of Health of Northampton county, I felt satisfied
that the report was a mere rumor.
But to settle the matter
I immediately wired Dr. Lewis for the truth. I received
the following reply :
Xo cholera or disease resembling it here. I reported some dysentery
in the county, and a few have died in Rich Square and Gaston townships.
I have not seen a fatal ease in this community.
H. W. LEWIS.
A letter from Mayor Ellis,
of Newbern, asking my opinion
and the views of the Board of Health in regard to privy
sinks, was received July 1st. A reply was sent expressing
the opinion that, looked at from a sanitary point of view,
they were utter abominations and sliould be condemned
and abated at the earliest possible moment.
On July loth a communication was received from Dr.
Julian M. Baker, of Tarboro, announcing the sudden appearance
in the town of eight or ten cases of typhoid fever without
any manifest cause and requesting that a member of
the State Board of Health be .sent there to investigate the
matter. In accordance therewith, Dr. Hodges not beingable
to
go on account of sickness in his family, the writer
was sent by the President.
Upon arrival at Tarboro a conference was held with the
Mayor and tlie local profession. A statement of the facts
and an expression of opinion was asked of each one. The
facts
were that twenty-seven cases had occurred up to that
time, the first about a month before.
That in some instances
the fever was not typical. That it was not particularly
malignant, although five had died. That the drinking