TYPHOID FEVER, DYSENTERY AND

DIPHTHERIA.

TYPHOID FEVER AT PRINCETON.

In the latter part of May a case of typhoid fever occurred at Princeton. Others followed, but not in rapid succession. Up to September 1st, so far as we could ascertain, there had been twelve

cases.

Of these, six were students of the college, all of whom recovered. There were in all two deaths. Dr. Wycoff, who attended most of the cases, and saw all of the first cases, has given us a careful verbal account as to probable or possible origin, and a careful investigation was made by the State Board of Health. There were three sources of possible origin. A boy came on a visit from Brooklyn to a boarding-house in which three other cases occurred. He was taken soon after his arrival, and one of the first cases occurred in this house. The next group of cases (five) occurred in a boardinghouse on Bergen Row, the first one being in this house two or three days previous to the first case in the former house named (not including the boy from Brooklyn). In this house, late in the fall of 1889, there was a case of typhoid fever, and all excretions had gone to a cesspool in the yard. Several days before this first case occurred, a ditch was dug from the overflowing cesspool and partly discharged into the street gutter, until stopped by the neighbors because of the great stench.

The other cases that occurred were in two houses quite distant from each other and from these, but were not among the earliest cases. In one of these houses both city and well-water were used, and the well was in bad condition. The only one thing in common to all the houses, so far as could be ascertained, was that one milkman supplied all these families. He supplied in all about fifteen families, of which there were cases in four. An examination of milk samples obtained from those supplied showed much water, but no other suspicious fact.

Dr. Wykoff and Professor Cornwall soon after visited the milk farm, one mile from Princeton, and procured samples of the milk just as received from the cows, and found it of excellent quality. The water of the well near by, analysis showed to be unusually pure. Near by was a small stream, which the farmer said was never used for rinsing cans. In a house just above, there had been seven cases of typhoid fever two years before, and the out-building stood near the stream.

If an earlier knowledge of the cases had reached the Board, and if the Local Board had been doing its duty, we should have hoped to have traced the cases to their origin. As it is, we deem it best to state the precise facts, as a record each practitioner can study for himself. To us, the Bergen Row cesspool seems the most probable source, although an argument can be made in favor of the origin being the milk-supply or the Brooklyn case.

It is well to know that the experience has led the borough and the literary institutions to unite in providing a system of sewerage.

DYSENTERY AT AND NEAR HAMBURG.

During the latter part of the summer a tendency to dysentery manifested itself, especially in a few rural districts. The most serious cases were those in the vicinity of Hamburg, Sussex county, there having been about fifty cases and over twenty deaths. The type was unusually severe, and ulceration often resulted in hemorrhage. At the time of the start of the disease there were some very filthy hogpens connected with a creamery and located on the edge of the village. These had been complained of as a very great nuisance, but were not very promptly dealt with by the Local Board of Health. The first cases were in that section, and it is at least probable that these contaminated the air and added to the gravity of the disease.

DIPHTHERIA AT FIELDSBORO.

Just about, or after the period for the annual report of last year, there occurred a severe epidemic of diphtheria at Fieldsboro, a small hamlet about one mile west of Bordentown. In its small population there were thirty cases and several deaths.

Dr. William M. Shipps, of Bordentown, says: "A thorough inspection of the locality brought to light unsanitary conditions of such

a character as to leave no doubt as to the origin of the disease. A rigid system of fumigation and cleansing did much toward controlling further advance of the disease."

Just such records we often have as to the smaller villages; such as those not long since at Elmer, Lyons Farms, &c., and such as are from time to time reported to us. Our larger cities have come to understand the need of prompt attention to first cases, and of rigid isolation, and so when there is effective force, soon limit the disease. But as was the case here, the Board of Health is formed or begins activity only after deaths have occurred. All physicians who understand preventive measures recognize that many lives are sacrificed by these delays, and that every township should have its Health Board in working order.