210 



Public Toilets, Public Drinking Fountains and 

 Public Spitting in Relation to the Conser- 

 vation OF Human Life. 



C. M. HiLLIAJSD. 



I'ublic supplies and pultlie c-onveiiienees are always pulilic (laiifjjers. 

 and for two reasons : tliey niay aff'Ht lartre numbers of people, and they 

 are always beyond the control of the individual who is ol)ligfd to use them. 

 The municipality and the state has. thei-eforc. a lirave duty; viz., to control 

 and to supervise public commodities of all kinds. 



Wc no longer believe that disease is the result of the '■malice of Satan." 

 or a "rt'biUcc of God." but ratlicr consider it the resiUt of personal or public 

 ignorance and neglect. I)econii)osiiig potatoes and pin-holes in the sewer 

 pipes are no longer believed by intelligent people to be the cause of typhoid 

 fever, but every ne^v case is Jicw evidence of deflcient civilization. In- 

 fectious diseases are caused by living germs and these parasitic germs live 

 and grow only within the liody of man. for the most part. They perish 

 quipkly in the harsh external environment. For tiie continuation of infec- 

 tious diseases it is necessary tliat a more or less direct transfer of fresh 

 nasal, oral, urinary or alimentai-y excretions from one body to another 

 susceptible body take place. The bcMly must be frequently freed of these 

 accunnnulations of wastes, for just as wastes in a connnunity may "breed" 

 ill Ixnilth and nuisance, so much more Important is it to rid the cell com- 

 imuiitj- — the body — of its wastes. 



The problem of public sanitation is two- fold. First, it must reduce to 

 a minimum the possibilities of transfer of the germ-laden body excretions 

 from jierson to person. Secondly, it must provide every public need and 

 connuodity that tends to raise the vital resistance of the people. There is 

 no more potent force tending to good health than the condition of the body; 

 its resistance to varia1)le exteinal conditions and parasite invasions 

 depends upon this general health toinis. 



Toilet facilities should be fnrnislicd liy railroads, hotels, bars, anuise- 

 ment places as theatres, fair-grounds, etc.. and by municipalities in fre- 



