points in the city. ties to confine it within limits. I believe vaccination with fresh animal virus alone has saved our city from a general and universal spread of the disease."

Little or no efforts were made by the authori

Dr. G. F. Hunt, of West Bend, writes:

"Never, since I commenced the practice of medicine, did I do any thing which gave me more satisfaction than to see that, with fresh animal vaccine, I was able to stay the ravages of this terrible disease and save valuable lives. It is my firm belief that all of those whom I have vaccinated, including those who have never been vaccinated before, are forever entirely protected from smallpox. Could animal virus be used on all children for the next generation, this loathsome disease would, in my opinion, disappear entirely from among us."

We submit the following statements for the thoughtful consideration of the citizens of the state:

Every person is bound by consideration of personal interest and safety, and by obligations to the state, to put himself and his family in a condition of absolute and continued protection against small pox by thorough vaccination.

Vaccination should not be neglected until a season of panic from small pox. Thousands of valuable lives are sacrificed annually through waiting for the approach of danger before attending to this duty.

During an epidemic diffusion of small pox, recent vaccination is the only safeguard. At such times every person should be vaccinated, and this without reference to any previous operation or experience. Children who have been successfully vaccinated within two years may be excluded from this rule.

Many intelligent persons hesitate and reject vaccination through fear that some other disease may be implanted in the system. The introduction of animal virus removes all such objections, and also gives assurance of the maximum of protective influence.

Some persons forever retain an immunity from small pox by one vaccination. In others the susceptibility to the disease returns after the lapse of a few years. This can be known only by the test of a re-vaccination. It is wise to make this test about once in five years, until middle life, when by natural physiological changes the susceptibility to small pox rapidly diminishes.

10- B. OF H.

When the operation is not followed by itching or any other effect it should be repeated.

Physicians, who visit patients sick with the small pox, should be scrupulously careful not to convey the disease to others. Such visits should never be made without a change of clothing, or some equivalent precautionary measure. A rubber overcoat, with a hood which shall cover the head and much of the face, is a useful means of protection. Such a protection can be secured by a glazed muslin garment, so constructed as to cover the entire person excepting the mouth and eyes. They should never make such visits when exhausted or hungry. Since it is possible that disease germs may enter the blood through the stomach, it is advised not to swallow the saliva while in the room, or for a time after leaving it. Some time should be spent in the open air before visiting another patient. They should not attend cases of confinement, or visit families where there are unvaccinated children while in attendance upon persons sick with small pox.

The infective power of small pox commences in the stage of incubation; increases as it progresses, and is the most active during the process of scabbing.

To destroy the germs of small pox with chlorine gas or sulphur fumes, these must be strong enough to destroy life.

Heat, either dry or moist, at a temperature of 240° will effectually disinfect from the contagia of small pox.

VILLAGE SANITARY WORK.

BY H. P. STRONG, M. D., OF BELOIT.

Member of the State Board of Health.

If one will take the trouble to go into a mathematical calculation, based upon the ratio of increase of population in our republic for the past fifty years, to find how many centuries hence we shall be like the older nations of the globe overcrowded, the mean

of longevity decreasing; with famine and pestilence, at noon-day, stalking mercilessly over the land—he will be surprised to find how soon those who are to come after us must meet the terrible reality. With this natural and inevitable increase comes the tendency to concentrate in communities, villages and cities. As a result of this aggregation, we now have a large proportion of deaths from diseases that result from what is commonly termed "blood poisoning," and the ratio of death is usually determined by the degree of crowding and attendant sanitary causes. Agricultural districts usually escape, while the towns and cities furuish the mortality lists of this class of diseases, which seem to have, in a great measure, their origin in local causes. As concentration into communities increases as a natural result of increase in population, so will we have more frequent and varied epidemics, of severe or malignant character in proportion to the public neglect of the necessary rules governing or regulating causes. If our attention is properly and assiduously directed to the public welfare, the time is not very far distant when every community will have its system of sanitary regulations. As the increasing population masses, and with a better and more enlightened understanding of the causes of disease, a strict enforcement of systematic rules will modify and change, in a large degree, the character of epidemic diseases. To this end, boards of health are organized and put into motion, and it becomes a part of

our duty to make suggestions to the public and to adopt measures, not only to benefit the present generation, but to contribute our part to the great humanitarian system, which is to relieve the great crowd that is sure to follow. This work must be performed in detail and from our several points of observation. By reason of our finite understanding, and an imperfect knowledge of all the forces operating in nature, this whole work is yet in its infancy, yet we are making rapid strides in the right direction. Already, years of patient observation by many intelligent thinkers has pretty clearly established the fact, that our epidemic or blood-poisoning diseases are in a great measure, if not entirely, caused by the manner we get rid of our vegetable and animal organic refuse; in other words, we contract these forms of disease from our cess pools, privy vaults, slop drains and, as a result, our tainted water supply. A small lot is assigned us, and upon this we concentrate all these agents to infect the air we breathe and poison the water we use, and if we suffer by reason thereof, we are accustomed to refer the cause to some source remote from our dwelling. If we give the subject the consideration it deserves, the illusion will surely be dispelled, and then we are likely to turn our attention to some rational way of removing the difficulty. The important question, How to deal with this refuse? is the purpose of the following suggestions:

An article, under the above caption, has been written by Geo. E. Waring, Jr., and published in Scribner's Monthly. It is an intelligent and practical one, and, for this reason, the greater part of the following has been copied from his article:

"It is a recently recognized, but an old and universal truth, that human life involves the production of refuse matters which, unless proper safeguards are taken, are sure to become a source of disease and death. The danger is not confined alone, nor chiefly, to that element of household waste which is most manifestly offensive, but in equal degree to all manner of organic refuse. It is true that fæcal matters are often accompanied by the inciting agent of the propagation of infectious diseases. For convenience, and as indicating the more probable means for disseminating infection, we may call this agent "germs." It has not yet been demonstrated with scientific completeness that a disease is spread by living germs whose growth in a new body produces a corresponding disorder; but all that is known of the circumstances of infection, and of the

means for promoting it, may be fully explained by this theory. Typhoid fever, cholera, epidemic diarrhoea, and some other prevalent diseases are presumed to be chiefly, if not entirely, propagated by germs thrown off by a diseased body. So far as these ailments are concerned there is, therefore, a very serious element of danger added in the case of fæces to the other evil effects which are produced by an improper disposal of any refuse organic matter. That any one of all these diseases can originate from the decomposition, under certain circumstances, of fæcal matters, is not clearly determined. There is, however, good reason for believing that one common effect of the gases arising from improperly treated matter of this kind is, to debilitate the human system, and so create a dispo- . sition to receive contagion, or to succumb to minor diseases which are not contagious.

"The same debilitating effect and the same injurious influences, often result from the neglect of other organic wastes.

The refuse

of the kitchen sink is free from fæcal matter, but it contains in a greater or less degree precisely the kind of organic material which has gone to make up the more offensive substance. If its final disposition is such as to contaminate the water that we drink or the air that we breathe, with the products of their decay, the danger to life is hardly less than that from the decomposition of fæcal accumulations."

The methods and processes by which village households and communities may be protected against the influences that come from an excess of soil moisture, from damp walls, and from imperfect removal or improper disposal of organic filth is simple, but necessarily attended with some expense. It involves a water sup

ply and, to be practicable, the tenements should not be too much. scartered.

“We will assume that a village has a water supply sufficient to admit of the use of water closets in all houses, and to furnish a good flushing for kitchen sinks, etc. A necessary complement of this work indeed, it should properly precede it is the establishment of a system of sewers, by which all of this liquid outflow may be safely carried away. It would be out of the question in a small or scattered community, especially where roadways are unpaved, to establish any system which should include in its working the removal of surface water. The moment we undertake to make sew