566 



GLEANIISIGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



Our Homes. 



Know ve not that ye are the temple of God, and 

 that the Spirit of God dweileth in you ?— I. Cor. 3:16. 



Saturday morning. June 29, news reached me 

 that a near and dear relative was very low with 

 malarial typhoid fever. As her home was not 

 over forty miles away I started off on my 

 wheel. When a little more than half way 

 there I stopped with another relative, a broth- 

 er of the sick one; and in talking the matter 

 over in regard to these fevers that are so apt 

 to occur at this season of the year, my atten- 

 tion was turned to a matter of vital importance 

 to the homes of our people— the water we drink. 

 Let me go back a little. 



Forty years ago our nearest neighbor in the 

 town of Mogadore. Summit Co., O., lost a child 

 by typhoid fever. My mother went over and 

 helped to take care of the child. Shortly after 

 its death she was taken down and had a long 

 siege; in fact, she just escaped with her life. 

 Before she recovered, a sister, very near my 

 own age, was also stricken down; but the phy- 

 sicians, with great care and labor, managed to 

 prevent the malady from going any further. 

 It was then nearly springtime. The first case 

 of the fever started in July or August, and it 

 ran in that neighborhood for more than half a 

 year after. Well, my uncle told me there was 

 typhoid fever in that neighborhood now; and 

 the Mogadore physician said they had typhoid 

 malarial fevers in that locality almost every 

 year. A year or two ago he became convinced 

 that the water they drank from a certain spring 

 was at the bottom of the trouble: and he gave 

 strict orders that no water should be used for 

 drinking-purposes from that particular spring. 

 Some friends came from a distance to take care 

 of one of the patients; but the doctor told them 

 the same — thev must not drink any water from 

 that spring. Well, all of the family and all of 

 the neighborhood obeyed the doctor's com- 

 mands e.xcept one young woman who laughed 

 at his caution, and said she would drink all the 

 spring water she pleased. She alone was 

 stricken down with typhoid fever. Those who 

 heeded the doctor's orders escaped. This spring 

 is right close to what was my boyhood home. 

 I have drank from it hundreds of times, and 

 know all about it. It is at the foot of a hill on 

 the edge of a mucky swamp. The water boils 

 up from the sandy bottom. If you dip out a 

 pailful, however, before the spring is full again, 

 surface water from the mucky swamp may run 

 in. as well as spring water from the bottom. 

 Not more than two rods from the spring there 

 used to be an old stable; a little further away, 

 a slaughter-house. Is it any thing strange 

 that, when the spring should be dipped dry, 

 may be several times a day — say on washing- 

 day— that the surface-water from that nasty 

 swamp should mix in with the pure water? 

 And, by the way. typhoid malarial fevers 

 almost always begin to appear when the wells 

 are pretty nearly dry. The State of Michigan 

 made some extensive experiments along this 

 line some years ago. and gave us some care- 

 fully prepared statistics that seemed to indicate 

 very plainly that low water in wells must have 

 some connection with the prevalence of fevers 

 in the locality. Well, after we had talked this 

 matter over, and each one present liad furnish- 

 ed more or less facts^facts all pointing in one 

 direction — I began to ask questions in regard 

 to the drinking-water, etc., where our relative 

 was now prostrated with fever. I was told 

 they had an excellent well of water; but, like 

 many other wells at this season of the year, the 

 water was very low. Furthermore, in building 



an addition to their home a year or two ago, 

 they built directly over the cistern; and the 

 sleeping-room had been located in this new 

 addition, almost directly over the cistern. I at 

 once questioned about the state of the water in 

 the cistern. Being covered up so closely it 

 smelled very bad; and our sick relative had 

 said, just before she was taken sick, that she 

 was going to have that cistern cleaned out and 

 filled up, and a new one made out in the open 

 air. I stepped on my wheel, and in a little 

 more than an hour I was at the bedside of my 

 friend and relative. While attending school in 

 early life my home had been with this aunt; 

 and a strong friendship had always existed 

 between us, especially after I decided to make 

 her God my God, and her people my people. 



I found the doctor with many of my relatives 

 consulting as to what could be done for the 

 loved one. Their old family physician was 

 absent on a visit, and a young doctor was called 

 in from a neighboring town. I told him I 

 wanted to meddle a little. When I explained 

 that it was about the cistern and the drinking- 

 water, he said I was exactly the man he want- 

 ed to find. The case had puzzled him ever 

 since lie took it up. In the early stages my 

 aunt was delirious. She would get up in the 

 night, before they knew she was very sick, and 

 she was once found on the floor, in a faint. 

 Unless constantly watched she would get up, 

 and insist that she was not sick at all, and that 

 the watchers and doctor could go home. He 

 said he felt sure there was a reason for the 

 peculiar symptoms of both members of the 

 household. Some of the cistern water was 

 pumped. None of it had been used for drink- 

 ing-purposes, but it was too bad to wash even 

 one's hands and face with. Furtltermore, this 

 cistern had at different times overflowed and 

 got into an unused cellar: and this unused cel- 

 lar was shut up close. Now. their well, where 

 all their drinking-water came from, was not 

 twenty feet away, in a porous, sandy, and 

 gravelly soil, from this closed -up cistern 

 and cellar. The patient was calling often for 

 a drink of cold water right from the well. My 

 uncle urged that there could be nothing the 

 matter with the well water, because it was so 

 beautiful to look at, and so pure to taste. 

 When I told him the germs of fever might exist 

 when neither taste nor smell nor looks would 

 indicate it. he became greatly surprised. The 

 doctor backed me up most vehemently, and 

 said something as follows: 



" Dear friends, the latest developments in the 

 way of typhoid fever Indicate most clearly that 

 it is not contagious unless one drinks the water 

 the sick ones have been in the habit of drink- 

 ing." 



Somebody suggested that there might be 

 danger in using it for cooking. 



" No, my friends," continued the doctor, 

 "providing the water used for cooking be boil- 

 ed, it seems to be perfectly safe. And rather 

 than run any risk, if you have any reason to 

 suspect the drinking-water, it should be boiled 

 before using it. We are making great progress 

 in this very matter of the cause of fevers, and 

 the whole evidence seems just now to point, to 

 an astonishing degree, toward the fact that the 

 water we drink— especially the cold water right 

 from the wells or cisterns, is the main cause of 

 these terrible fevers." 



Now, friends, it did me a lot of good to have 

 a good talk with that bright young doctor. He 

 was full of life and energy, and full of love for 

 humanity; and he assured me that one of the 

 great obstacles in the way of getting rid of 

 these malarial fevers was to get people to have 

 faith in the doctor, and to believe he knoivs his 

 own business. 



