Annual and Analytical Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine Volume 6 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ...to prevent the surface-water from running in. Well-water should be occasionally inspected for general impurities as well as bacteriologically. When water is not pure, boiling and filtering should be recommended. Filtering, such as done on a large scale in London, England, renders water almost free from typhoid bacilli. Boiling will destroy all germs, but will not remove the toxins. Ice is often the source of typhoid fever, as the bacilli are not destroyed by freezing. It is therefore safer to cool water in a refrigerator than to place ice in it when the source of the latter is not well known. 3. Several epidemics of typhoid fever have been produced by contaminated milk. In all large cities dairies should be inspected to see that the disease does not exist in the neighborhood, that the utensils are cleansed with pure water, while general cleanliness is insisted upon. If milk be suspected to contain bacilli, the danger may be removed by boiling. The introduction of typhoid germs by oysters would seem to be easily prevented by interdicting or regulating the fattening process for which the oysters are placed in fresh water, when the latter is often impure. Oysters obtained from their beds in the deep sea are not contaminated. 4. Good drainage is an important factor in the prevention of typhoid in cities and towns. There is a direct relationship between the amount of impurity of the soil and the number of cases of typhoid fever. In the cities of Munich and Vienna, when the soil had been saturated with sewage for years, the introduction of pure water from without reduced the mortality to a considerable extent, but it was not until thorough drainage was made that the greatest reduction in the numbers of typhoid cases took place. When the streets...