History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

The Hardy Pioneer 33As far as illness was concerned, water was no less blameworthy thanfood and the manner of eating it. The presence of a well marked a settleras far more enterprising than most of his fellows. "Americans," wroteFordham in 1818, ". . . have such a dread of a little trouble, that they mustbe near a creek, that they may dip for water at their cabin doors; for wellswon't dig themselves, and the swing pole and bucket are for ever out oforder." 27 Fifteen years later Patrick Shirreff found a tavern keeper a shortdistance southwest of Chicago drawing water from a stone-lined well, andwas impelled to remark that such a facility was "uncommon in this part ofthe country, few people taking so much pains to keep their water free ofmud." 28On the steamboats a bucket lowered over the side supplied water fordrinking as well as all other purposes. 29 Eliza Steele, traveling up theOhio in 1840, cited an amusing example of the way in which habit leadsto preference. She hesitated to drink the muddy water in the tumbler,which had half an inch of sediment in the bottom. One of her travelingcompanions, a native of the country, took a swallow. "Dear mel Whatinsipid water!" she remarked. "It has been standing too long. I like itright thick." 'Whereupon she sent the chambermaid for some water freshfrom the river "with the true Mississippi relish." 30The cities, in fact, were as remiss in matters of cleanliness and sanitationgenerally as the individual settler. Ordinances speak volumes regardingthe habits of early residents.In 1827 the city council of Cincinnati prohibitedthe depositing of mud, dung, or other filth in streets or alleys; orthe leaving of dead carcasses of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, or dogs, or thepiling of excrement from vaults or privies within the built-up section ofthe city. 31 The first ordinances of Chicago, adopted in 1833, included onewhich made it unlawful for a person "to throw or put, or cause to bethrown or put into the Chicago river, within the limits of said town, anycarcass of any dead animal or animals." 32 A Quincy, Illinois, ordinance of1834 forbade anyone "to bring any dead animal and leave the same toputrify within the limits of the town." 33 Such enactments could be foundin almost every town and city of consequence in the West.Yet there is abundant evidence that these requirements were violatedeverywhere. When Mrs. Trollope took a house in Cincinnati in1828 she27Personal Narrative, 156.26Tour Through North America, 232.28 Shirreff, Tour, 269; Buckingham, Eastern and Western States, III, 88.80A Summer Journey in the West (New York, 1841), 210-11.81 An Act Incorporating the City of Cincinnati, and a Digest of the Ordinances of SaidCity (Cincinnati, 1835), 110-11.82Chicago History, I, No. 8, 224-26.83Henry Asbury, Reminiscences of Quincy, Illinois (1882).