492 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the disease. This linowledge came to us in ISSl, aud with it a means 

 for the early diagnosis of the disease. This has enabled us to detect and 

 ward it off in thousands of cases in its early stages, and it will at last 

 give us the victory over it altogether. See Fig. II. 



ASIATIC CHOLERA. 



Our incredulity in the matter of disease and its treatment is amazing. 

 Disease is an entity; only those people who think they are sick can be 

 cured by thinkiny they are well. In 1892 a scourge of cholera fell upon 

 the city of Hamburg, more severe than had ever fallen upon any other 

 city. Again aud again this disease has set out from its home in Asia, 

 and has traveled across Europe and across the Atlantic to be arrested by 

 the 9,000-mile water barrier of the Pacific only. This time it not only did 

 not cross the Atlantic, but jt did not spread in Germany; it did not even 

 cross the street separating Hamburg from Altona. The disease germs got 

 in the Elbe, above the city water works, and appeared almost simultane- 

 ously with the contaminated water in nearly every house. ■ Altona had a 

 different water supply. A bacteriologist was placed in command. Rules 

 for battling with the disease were posted on every corner and given to 

 every house and were promptly enforced. Not a nurse or physician in 

 any hospital died from the disease. Demonstration can not be clearer. 



TYPHOID FEVER. 



Typhoid fever is a disease that we contract in a similar manner; that 

 is, by drinking impure water or milk, or, in rare instances, by eating 

 contaminated food. It is an easily preventable disease, and yet we have 

 it in almost all parts of the State. Every shallow well in a town is a 

 menace to the public health. This menace becomes greater as the town 

 increases in size; and it adds to the danger if the town is underlaid by a bed 

 of gravel from which the wells draw and into which the sinks drain. In 

 such a town one case of disease, improperly managed, may create an epi- 

 demic. More than a hundred cases appeared suddenly lately in an Indi- 

 ana town. A dairyman with typhoid fever in his family brought it with 

 his milk; the first thirteen cases were his customers. From some of these 

 cases the germs reached the gravel substratum, and the fever broke out 

 everywhere. Not only physicians, but every one should know that the 

 deadly germs are in the faeces of the patient, and that these must De 

 passed into a vessel containing a poison like corrosive sublimate or forma- 

 lin. It will not do to pour the poison in on the stools; some germs are sure 

 to escape. For greater safety, the vessel contents should be burned. 



Another Indiana town had its cemetery on top of the hill, its school- 

 i^ouse about half way down; the town itself was at the foot of the hill and 

 the river beyond. They had the typhoid fever, of course. Any one of 

 three things would reduce the disease in the State or any part of the 

 State to those bringing it in from somewhere else. Fig. VIII. 



