422 ' ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



population of only KM) to a square mile, there was last 3'eai' just 

 as much typhoid fever as in the Capital city itself, with a population 

 of 10,000 to a square mile. This is very poor showing indeed for 

 the country, but Michigan beats it with a record in some districts of 

 twenty times as much typhoid in the county as in the neighboring 

 cities. This is the kind of a story that figures tell about rural hy- 

 giene, and this is the reason w^hy we have been asking our legisla- 

 tors for better sanitary laws. 



Taking these conditions, then, as they exist to-day, we shall 

 have to admit that there must be much room for sanitary improve- 

 ment about the ordinary farm, and in the absence of State or county 

 supervision we have to do all this ourselves. On the individual far- 

 mer, in this State at least, rests tire (|uestion whether he is to live 

 in a healthy place or not. 



When we come to take a sanitary view of the farm, the first point 

 of interest, of course, is the house itself. This, like any other house, 

 should have a clean, drj- cellar, and the rooms should have plenty 

 of air and sunlight. Sunlight fades carpets, but faded children 

 are worse. The abundant fresh air of the country will not compen- 

 sate for faulty house construction. 



The heating of country houses should be looked after more care- 

 fully than is customary. The method of heating, which is almost 

 always that of stoves, is in itself defective and little can be done 

 to remedy it, unless the rooms have open fire-places. If these are 

 kept open and not closed, as I have frequently seen, you vnU get 

 much more effective heating and much better ventilation. 



The next point which attracts attention, and the one in which 

 occurs the greatest defect, too, is the water supply, though it comes 

 from a well or spring. This may seem very strange to you, yet it is 

 a proved fact that fifty per cent, at least of all farm wells are 

 grossl}' polluted and unfit for drinking purposes. It is hard to 

 give up our sentimental ideas about the "moss-covered well," and the 

 "old oaken bucket," harder yet to give up our ideas of purity about 

 the old spring, but the fact that we have so many epidemics of ty- 

 phoid fever occurring in isolatc^d farm houses, three, four and five 

 cases, sometimes in one family, goes far to uphold the Ijad character 

 of the water. 



Frequently, people have said to me: "Why, doctor; this is such 

 good water, and nobody ever got sick from it." Only a few years 

 ago I came across just such a well. Three generations drank 

 of that water, and true, nobody did get sick from it, but at last 

 the spell was broken and four of that family went down with ty- 

 )»hoid, and the dear, old family well showed, on examination, th<^ 

 grossest pollution. 



But you will say: "Ornntod that our wells and springs are pol- 



