IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
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ness and more people die than in localities in the same town or city 
where the people keep their persons and premises clean. If a 
woman has not kept her premises clean, there is no reason to exempt 
even her private room from a scrubbing at the expense of the city. AVe 
suggest to the officers that they secure a quantity of disinfesting agents 
and use them freely as they proceed in their cleaning operations.” A 
quotation in this same paper, the Dubuque Express and Herald, of 
May 11, 1855, is from the Chicago Times : ^ ^ The cholera is at our doors. 
* streets and alleys are in a most deplorable state ; they 
are in a ripe condition, wdiich in the first warm day will bring to a 
fruitful harvest of disease and death. Now is the time to clean 
the streets, to sprinkle lime and take precautionary measures.” 
The Davenport Banner of June 11, 1852, quotes from The Standard,. 
La Salle, Ilk, of May, with reference to some deaths among railroad 
laborers: ^ ^ Added to this the water wms' bad, being ta.ken from- 
sloughs that were high ; and holding in solution the filth that had been 
washed from the banks, and was therefore unfit for use. We are told 
also that some bread they had eaten was made of poor flour with which 
they had provided themselves on account of its cheapness, and further- 
more the day before the sickness broke out among them, a barrel of 
whiskey had been brought upon the ground of which liberal use Avas. 
made. The result Avas some ten or a dozen died soon afterAA^ards, with a 
sickness resembling cholera morbus.” 
In the Keokuk Gate City of May 16, 1855, is an editorial headed, '‘A 
Deadly Nuisance,” demanding that a pond in the heart of the city be 
done away with : the claim is made that sickness and death of some in 
the immediate vicinity were due to its existence. 
In the same month, the president of the board of health of Keokuk in 
reply to an editorial criticism in the Keokuk Gate City of the preceding 
day. May 17, said : ‘ Hn conclusion we wish to inform your readers that 
the board of health has no easy task to perform. They meet with many 
curses and much abuse from persons who can not appreciate the import- 
ance of cleanliness about their premises, and this fact should induce more 
nlightened people to aid them in the performance of their duty, to be. 
a little more charitable in their criticisms. ’ ’ 
In the Ottumwa Courier of June 6, 1867, is the following : ‘ ‘ Cholera r 
Our dispatches yesterday inform us that there have been already two 
cases of Asiatic Cholera in New York, and whether these cases are genuine 
or not scientific and medical men pretty generally agree that this country 
is to have another visitation of this most unAvelcome guest during the ap- 
proaching hot summer months, to remain a longer or shorter time as Ave 
