Mr, Arthur: Shadwell on Typhoid,

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2105, 19 May 1898, Page 3

Mr, Arthur: Shadwell on Typhoid,

paper iu the National Review, Mr-Arthur Shadwell characterises as suicidal the deaths which have recently taken place from typhoid fever at Maidstone and ‘King's Lynn. Fer those deaths were preventable in both cases, because they were the result of a polluted water supply. But, inasmuch as this was under the control of the municipal authorities, were they not guilty,of manslaughter ? and were . the victims of the subtle poison justly chargeable with self - destruction ? ‘ Epidemic typhoid,* writes Mr Shad- ? well, vis preventable with absolute certainty and ease.’ It is not infectious nor even contagious, in ■ the ordinary sense of the word; .and the medium through which the poison is introduced into the system * can hardly be anything else but water, acting ; directly or indirectly. 1 . ,3 herefore, in order to obtain . absolute immunity from this form of fever, the water people di-ink must be either takeh from'a pure source aud supplied without contamination in its transit, or it must be purified before, distribution. In 1692 the city of Hamburg had one - of the dirtiest water supplies in Europe and ,;the; death rate' was between 23 and; 24 per thousand. In the year following it obtained a perfectly pure ■ supply, 41$ the rate of mortality fell to 16 per lOpOh -The Ghange was en-j tirely affected by filtration.* In stone,'up to' 1690, the water supplies ... wore-analysed once a fortnight, and then the practice was discontinued because it cost £SO per annum ! Between the 11th "f {September and the 7th October, 1897, there were 1452 CHses of typhoid, with alarming mortality as a matter of course. But when the tainted water supply was cut off there was a steady- and continuous decrease in the nuuiber of fresh cases; There is no necessity to emphasise the lesson to be learned from facts like these.