1889, when a child in Mr. Yungman's family took the disease and died. April 10, diphtheria broke out in the family of Mr. Fisher, an undertaker, and three children the mother and servant had it, two of the children dying. Mr. Fisher was then living near the Yungman family, in which the first death occurred, but did not go near the corpse, although his partner, with whom he associated, officiated at the funeral. Mr. Fisher subsequently moved to another part of the town, and the day I was there, August 22, was himself suffering from a well-marked case of diphtheria. About the first of May two cases occurred in the Hirling family-the one in which the first case in the town occurred. During all this time little or no precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Free visiting of afflicted families was the rule, and about June 10, a child which had contracted the disease in Moscow, but had been taken to a place near Cincinnati, where it died, was brought to Moscow and given a public funeral, the body being taken into a church. None of the funerals had been strictly private. The disease, in most cases, was deceptively mild, but few of the children being confined to the bed more than a day or two, but the mortality was not low, a number of children dying of heart failure when they had apparently nearly recovered. This feature of the disease favored its spread, for convalescent children were not confined to the house, and in case after case I was able to elicit the fact that the patient had played with another child which had recently had diphtheria. The number of cases gradually increased during July and August, reaching a climax about the time of my visit. The greatest excitement prevailed. People were burning sulphur in their houses, some were placing dishes of chloride of lime in their sleeping rooms, and some children were wearing charms to ward off the disease. A meeting of Council was held at 1 P. M., the three local physicans and myself being invited to be present. An ordinance to establish a board of health was drafted, and under suspension of the rules was read three times and passed. A board of health was appointed, consisting of three members of Council, two physicians and a merchant. The board immediately convened, organized and adopted the rules and regulations, with slight modifications, recommended by the State Board. A health officer was elected, to whom I gave several hundred pamphlets on the Prevention of Diphtheria, which I had brought with me, and directed the board to have him place a copy in each house in the village. I also advised the board to have the health officer make thorough house to house inspection, leaving orders for the correction of all unsanitary conditions found. This they agreed to do. A manifesto which I prepared was published, warning the people of the contagious nature of diphtheria, and informing them of the creation of a board of health, to which they were asked to give their sympathy and support. The total number of cases which occurred, from the introduction of the disease to August 24, was seventy-four, and of this number twelve died; about sixteen of the cases were adults, the deaths, however, were confined to children. From August 24 to September 13 there have been, according to the health officer's reports, fifteen new cases and one death, making a total of eighty-nine cases and thirteen deaths. On returning home blanks were prepared and sent to the attending physicians, with a request to fill in answers and return to me. Dr. McKibben and Dr. McGill reported as follows: The following letter from the Council of Moscow has been received: To the Honorable Board of Health, Columbus, Ohio: MOSCOW, OHIO, August 22, 1889. GENTLEMEN: At a called meeting of the Council of the village of Moscow. Ohio, Mayor J. R. Wiley presiding, the following vote of thanks was unanimously tendered your Board through your Secretary, Dr. C. O. Probst: Resolved, That the Council and citizens of Moscow, Ohio, unanimously return their sincere thanks for your prompt action in sending a member of your Board, Dr. C. O. Probst, to aid our physicians and establish a board of health, and that your Secretary has done his work thoroughly, and we trust with the most beneficial results, having visited all the afflicted families in person. Respectfully, S. H. GRIMES, Secretary. TYPHOID-FEVER AT NEW CONCORD. The latter part of August a letter was received from Mr. K———, of New Concord, Muskingum county, reporting that about twenty-five cases and one or two deaths had occurred in that village from what the physicians pronounced typhoid-fever, and stating that Council had refused to organize a board of health. I answered the letter and wrote to the Mayor and Council, urging them to create a board of health at once, and offered to come to their assistance if required. I also sent a large package of our circulars relating to the prevention of typhoid-fever, and requested that one be placed in each house in the village. It was also advised that the citizens should be instructed to boil all drinking-water used. The Muskingum College is located at New Concord, and was opened September 2. I wrote to President Irons, advising him to instruct the students to drink no water that had not been boiled; also, to disinfect privies, drains, etc., about the college building. He returned a letter of thanks, stating that these instructions had been obeyed. The following resolution was received from the Mayor: COPY OF RESOLUTION. Resolved, That we, in special session of the Village Council of New Concord, this 2d day of September, 1889, after full and deliberate consideration of the sanitary condition of our village, are of the opinion, that while there is, and has been, considerable sickness of malarial and typhoid-fevers in mild form, yet we do not find such disease to be epidemic in form, and we do positively affirm that our village is at present in good sanitary condition, and such disease results from natural causes, for which we are not responsible |