OCR Text |
Show SICKNESS IN CHICAGO. A frightful epidemic has been raging in Chicago during the last five weeks. It has subsided now, but three weeks ago the chief of the Board of Health in Chicago said that 50 per cent of the people in that city were ill. The Outlook gives some particulars. In three weeks there were nearly 6000 cases of scarlet fever in that city, according to the physicians' reports to the Department of Health. About 2500 cases of diphtheria are recorded. In a minor degree measles have been epidemic. Fortunately the tj'pe of the disease has generally been light. From January 1 until a week ago there had been 149 deaths from scarlet fever and 98 from diphtheria. diph-theria. Then, during the first month of the year 592 persons died of pneumonia and 326 of consumption. con-sumption. The health officers say that more people died from cancer than from diphtheria. Many families have taken children out of town. Thousands have kept their children out of the schools. Church services have been stopped in places. Social gatherings have been abandoned, and skating in the parks has been discouraged. It seems the original cause was in the milk supply sup-ply of the city. There were 140 cases of scarlet fever in Evanston, just out of Chicago. The fact was established that nearly all came in houses supplied sup-plied with milk by one large concern from one receiving re-ceiving station. This is a year in which a great deal of sickness is found all around the world, and that fact makes it the more imperative that the health officers in every city be on the alert because it is much easier to prevent diseases than it is to arrest an epidemic when it gets started. |