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Public Toilets, Public Drinking Fountains and 

 Public Spitting in Relation to the Conser- 

 vation OF Human Life. 



C. M. HiLLIAED. 



I'ublic supplies and public couveniences are always public dangers, 

 and for two reasons : tliey may affoct large numbers of people, and they 

 are ahvays beyond the control of the individual who is obliged to use them. 

 The nnmicipality and the state has, therefore, a grave duty: viz., to control 

 and to supervise public commodities of all kinds. 



We no longer believe that disease is the result of tlie 'iiialice of Satan," 

 or a "rebuke of God," but rather consider it the result of personal or public 

 ignorance and neglect. Decomposing potatoes and pin-holes in the sewer 

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

 fever, but every new case is new evidence of deficient civilization. In- 

 fectious diseases are caused by living germs and these parasitic germs li\e 

 and grow oidy within the body of man. for the most part. They perish 

 quickly in the harsh external environment. For the continuation of infec- 

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

 nasal, oral, ui-inary or alimentary excretions from one body to another 

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

 accummulations of wastes, for just as wastes in a conmiunity may "breed" 

 ill health and nuisance, so much more important is it to rid the cell com- 

 nuuiity — 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 excretion.s 

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

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

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

 its I'esistance to variable external conditions and parasite invasions 

 depends upon this general health tonus. 



Toilet facilities should be furnished by railroads, hotels, bars, amuse- 

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



