32 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of life or incapacitate. One other re- 

 l)ort will suffice to illustrate the condi- 

 tion in other western states. The state 

 of Washington reports for the last three 

 years as follows : 



Typhoid Enteritis Goitre Dysentery 



FIGHTING A FIRE 



This man with another worker could build aDout seven small hreplaces a day. One 

 of those fireplaces might prevent .such a fire as this. 



This annual casualty list cannot be charged to the 

 blindness or inattention of the Forest Service. Effort 

 has been made in making camping places safe. Funds 

 have not been appropriated to carry on this much needed 

 protection program. No one realizes the dangers better 

 than the Forest Service, but without authorization and 

 funds with which to do this work they are helpless. 



Statements from Boards of Health show the real men- 

 ace to life lurking in this lack of sanitation in camping 

 areas. During the past three 

 years there were 331 deaths due 

 to typhoid in the one state of 

 Colorado. There were 79 of 

 these in the city of Denver. 

 Every case reported from Den- 

 ver was traced directly to some 

 outside infection. None came 

 from the city water or milk suj)- 

 ply. Nearly all could be traced 

 to a camping trip in the moun- 

 tains. 



The same ratio of loss will 

 not hold for the entire state, but 

 beside these 331 deaths it is safe 

 to estimate that there are scores 

 of cases contracted by tourists 

 from outside the state that are 

 never reported to the Colorado 

 Board of Health. It is another 

 ])oint to consider that in this list 

 only deaths from typhoid are 

 listed and not the total number 

 of cases. Still another fact is 

 that typhoid statistics given 

 represent only one water bom 

 disease. Paratyphoid, dysen- 

 tery and others yearly take toll 



(Including Month of April) 



The bulk of our western mountain 

 playgrounds are in National Forests. 

 Other magnificent areas are in the Na- 

 tional Parks. While not all of the ty- 

 phoid and allied death causes reported 

 to the state Boards of Health can be 

 traced to the use of contaminated water 

 while the patient was on a camping trip 

 in these areas, it is certain that if a 

 check were possible scores of deaths each 

 year would be directly chargeable to 

 proper sanitation in these moun- 

 Auto touring is becoming more 



the lack of 

 tain playgrounds, 

 and more popular. The highway leads to open country 

 and the big timber calls more people each year to the 

 mountain places of the west. With this condition exist- 

 ing there is increasing need of proper preventative 

 measures against fire and disease. With the increase of 

 population in a forest camp comes the increase in menace 

 from these two agencies. 



THE FIRE DEMON'S SMOKE B.\NNER 



"Preventative Medicine" is a rational method now advocated. "An ounce of prevention is 

 worth a pound of cure." A fireplace will perhaps be the ounce of preventative medicine to 

 lure the fire ill at some point in our forests. 



