Show DIPHTHERIA During the past month there has been a great deal of diphtheria in this city and I much was said about it and its cause but i nothing special was done to stop its I spread The Sextons mortuary report is now in and from this it appears there I were ten deaths from diphtheria during August while the whole number of deaths was fortynine The Herald of I this morning endeavors to refute the i charge about the city being unclean and I consequently unhealthy When twenty per cent of the deaths in any city for one month are attributable to one cause that fact certainly goes to show that there is something extraordinary in the condition of things which causes twenty per cent of the deaths to result from one disease alone Another thing to be borne in mind is the fact that not more than about onefifth of I those who arc attacked by diphtheria i succumb to it Diphtheria too is I a germ disease and carried like all such diseases are in the air and is rifest where filth abounds To prove this it is only necessary i to cite the terrible ravages which the I cholera is making in Spain The filthy j condition of the Spanish towns is notori j j oils and it is owing to this condition that the cholera has been so deadly That the mortality resultant from diphtheria j I was not greater in August than the Sextons j I Sex-tons report shows is owing to tho skill of the physicians who attended I at-tended the diphtheria patients and j not to any effort on the part o the city officials to purify the town of dirt The great cause of the citys unhealthy un-healthy condition is not the dirt one sees upon the surface but the filth of tho cesspools those reservoirs of death germs These are the things at which the city officials should strike In some parts of tho town there are pig styos which send forth such a stench that they 1 i I I almost make one sick to pass within a j block of the 1 places where they are located and still all these things are not 1 put a stop to by the officials It is a i j I notorious and regrettable fact that the city I gets more unhealthy each year for each I year the population and the cesspools increase i in-crease and each year our city officials become be-come more apathetic The unhealthy condition of the city produces a general state of illhealth with man and they only escape such fell diseases as diphtheria by extreme care of themselves and their premises One i thing that should be done to i i I improve the general health of the city is the extension of the water mains to all I parts of the city that the use of welf and I creek water for drinkinj and culinary purposes may be discontinued Water sects and wells are the highways of disease dis-ease Let the water mains be extended and the cesspools be abolished and then much will have been done to clear the city of disease |