The Bulletin. 33 



Ei"hty-five per cent of the tenant class and tlio colored race use no privy, and 

 the discharge from the bowels and kidneys is left on the yards, to be carried by 

 the drainage into our wells and springs; to be scattered by chickens and hogs, 

 and to be carried into the house by fliea. The most serious trouble ari-ing from 

 no closet, or the unsanitary closet, is the spread of the germs of typhoid fever 

 and the hookworm disease. ^ 



WHAT IS TYPHOID FE'\'ER? 



The typhoid bacillus attacks and causes ulceration of certain glands of the 

 small intestines, and the germs are to be found, therefore, in the boicel dificharge. 

 more abundantly than in any other e.xcretions, although present in the discharge 

 from the kidneys. 



COMMON AGENCIES OF TRANSFER. 



The germs of typhoid are swallowed. They are carried from the sick to the 

 healthy, first, in chinking water, including milk infected from wasluTig cans in 

 polluted water; second, by the conuuon house fly, and third, by personal contact. 



How shall we prevent further cases? 



(1) Cover all body discharges (immediately after passage) to prevent access 

 of flies. 



(2) Disinfect the discharge as soon as possible with (a) freshly made milk of 

 lime (unslaked) or (b) five per cent solution of carbolic acid, and then bury. 



(3) Soak all clothes, bed linen, handkerchiefs, towels, in carbolic acid water 

 until they can be boiled. 



(4) Ail remnants of food left in sick room must be burned. 



(5) Nurses should dip hands in disinfectant after handling patient. (Above 

 rules are given by State Board of Health.) 



(6) Sterilize all dishes, both in sickness and in health. 



(7) Destroy all filth to keep down flies. 



(8) Remove breeding places of flies, if possible. 



(9) Use screens of mosquito netting, if wire is out of the question. 



The danger of the conunon house fly can not be overestimated. Dr. L. C. 

 Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture, 

 states that "there are no less than 2.'»0.0()() cases of typlioid fever in the United 

 States aimually, resulting in 3,o,0U0 deaths, directly attributable to the pres- 

 ence and deadly work of the conuuon house fly." He says further that "this 

 fly of world-wide distribution is perhaps the most important insect pest known 

 to man. As a direct pest it is a source of gieat annoyance, necessitating with 

 the mosquito an estimated annual expenditure, in the United States alone, of 

 more than $10,000,000 for the screening of habitations." "The fly feeds on filth 

 and lives in filth, and is responsible for the spread of, not only typhoid fever, 

 but many of the intestinal diseases of children. The efl'ect of its awful work 

 is seen in some of our homes every day, as tiiose we love are borne to their last 

 resting place. And these diseases are preventable." If every wonuin and girl 

 would take this matter seriously and try to kill out the flies by removing their 

 breeding places, a dilferent story would be told in the course of the next few 

 years. 



now TO REMOVE THEIR BREEDING PLACES. 



1., Flies breed in stable manure. If stables are cleaned and the manure 

 stacked or put in a close bin and covered with a thin layer of dry earth, the flies 

 can not breed in it. 



2. Flies breed in human excreta. A sanitary privy will prevent breeding of 

 flies in human soil. 



3. Flies breed in the garbage can. Have a large, close box in the back yard, 

 keep slop buckets in the box; have a closely fitted lid and wash and sun both 

 the buckets and the box every day. 



HOW TO BUILD A SANITARY CLOSET. 



Anything short of a sewer system is a compromise with the ideal; but in 

 small villages and country places, we must make the most sanitary arrangement 



3 



