TYPHOID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8989, 29 February 1888, Page 3

TYPHOID.

TO THE KDITOB.

Sir,—People in Ponsonby and elsewhere need not be at a loss to account for the prevalence of typhoid. One of the greatest sources of danger is in the numerous unoccupied houses, and the neglected closets whose contents are left to fester and Generate fever germs. The new tenant aving many other things to attend - to, finds when he is in the house that the closet is in a "disgraceful condition." He sends to the contractor, who probably takes no

notice of the communications, and only when he is visited at his office informs the tenant that the fees must be paid first, and then the matter will be attended to. Perhaps days pass—the closet perhaps has in it no earth-box : the fever is soon communicated to the tenant, who has been worried into a condition in which he is most susceptible. The remedy is easy. Make every landlord responsible for the sanitary condition of his untenanted premises. Let him be required to have a bill of health before letting. A fee of 5s to the Inspector would enable him to have his place examined, and the certificate would be satisfactory to the tenant. The precautions we take against rabies in dogs, though they may have had a three months' voyage, or small-pox, by quarantining people for three weeks, are positively ludicrous in view of the recklessness with which we allow ourselves to be poisoned by foul and neglected closets in our midst. am, &c., Sanitas.