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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9036, 20 April 1888, Page 4

Whatevee may be the ultimate result of the inquiry' as to the outbreak of typhoid, toe Mayor and City Council are certainly deserving not only of commendation oat public thanks fo» the coarse they have taken 12 holdira. conference "with medical practitioners It is unfortunately only too ©msho* with administrative bodies to go 02 with blind obstinacy in their o«.-< -«:-,-, without either seeking or taking aeries' from those whose attention haj be? a specially given to the paracsiar sub; under treatment; and i* ~s because ■:■: this blind stubbornness that we Lav* frequently results so opposed to - :i simplest principles of common sens* that there has grown up a general ides that it is only the stupidest peop.e v.- i 3 pat themselves forward and are elected to public positions. The City Conn." has done well in this, and we Liv» very little doubt that"' grsa* p-.d •will .arise from such rational .-%-.- xnent of a subject that Las become a burning one in Acc£:&&£, Albeit that this is so, confess to some disappointment with the -:>;;. ances of the doctors, and from a perusal of their opinions we cannot _ fan to h» impressed with the fact 01 by i-~\» medic*! science has cone tores..- y£r~ what ought to be considered the most elementary questions as to the genesis of disease! Is- typhoid communicable by contagion or by infection • >'-—- ■;: them said by infection but no: by •-:-. tasion : others by contagion but no: by infection : and others hold oy neither the one nor the other. The tact is they know nothing at ail about it : "=". : .e".:.-r it is transmissible, or not. or bow. Can it arise de sow from dirt > or dees it require a transmitted germ to start it! or can it arise within the system of the individual? Nobody knows : the authorities are on the one side and or. *.;.-» other : and it is ail guessing and ophfioaativeness still : and we do not hesitate to say that it is a disgrace to medical science that it is still groping in tie dark on this, the very primary question in pathology and sanitation. V. mean no reflection whatever on our local medicos ; but to medical science it is 1 burning shame that it can tell cs nothing more of the genesis of on? of the" commonest of diseases tain vaguely that it comes from dirt. i:.-r-------are. however, a few general tacts that have been established by this conference of very considerable value. Tie first of these is. as was pretty genera„r held by the doctors, that the typhoid outbreak in Ponsonby. and more especially in connection with the Tramway employes, was caused by the neglected and filthy state of the tramway stab.? closets. This state' of things is very disgraceful to the Tramway Compact to begin with ; and it is little _ less discreditable to the City Council, whose insufficient system of inspection allowed such a condition of things to arise. But having fixed the cause of the principal outbreak, at Ponsonrr. the opinions of the medical men tire* a good deal of light on the general and numerous causes contributing their ouota of typhoid cases all over the city and suburbs- The neglected state of closets, the general disuse of earth in them, the saturation of the soil by '."esspits, the leakage of closets, detective plumbers' work, untrspped sewage gas. unventilated sewers. misconduct « nightmen, the insanitary ana cnoisinfected condition of their cans traversing our streets like the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; the leakage 01 these vehicles, the concealment of nightsoil by burying it in backyards and gardens, its exposure over the :.m= from which its poisonous emanations can be borne by the winds to our source of water supply, contamination of water, contamination of milk, crowded and insanitary dwellings and the existence K abattoirs and soapworks in positions to pollute the air of populous neighborhoods—all these give their several contributions to the sickness and the death: that come of typhoid ; and everyone of them demands a totally differen: system of regular inspection, and vieorous and unflinching action a Auckland is to be raised to a position of freedom from this malady, which threatens to assert such an ascendancy in the district. We cannot help feeling that the Council will be inevitably driven to some such course as that which has been urged so strongly by Dr. Erson, to whose persistency we are mainly indebted for this conference being'held, namely, the appointment 0: a scientific sanitary commission, or the placing of the matter under the super vision of some officer specially skilled in modern sanitary science ana its appliances. When we consider the cost that typhoid has entailed on individual and their families, and on the community during the past season, it is Finable that a very considerable expenditure in stifling the causes of typhoid would have been public economy. There should be a weekly inspect;*of every closet and every back van in the city, and by - laws having been made sufficiently stringent, ever? case of neglect, whether by oversight or wilfulness, should be promptly brought before the Resident Magistrate. » e regard the existing Bench of Justices as contributing to typhoid fever, to * greater extent than the nightsoil depot or any other of the previously enumerated sources of disease, and such * disgraceful miscarriage of justice as that which occurred yesterday—when on technical grounds of the most trivial kind, a case was dismissed in which * man had deposited nightsoil in a b*«' yard—is sufficient to arouse the puWi« to demand a clearance of the Bench _ &» much as we desire the slushing of toe sewers. Either sympathy with nltmness, or fear of offending, has made our magistrates worse than useless in respec. of offences against the health ol "J people, and henceforth none ot these cases should ever be brought before any one but the Resident Magistrate. »£ Baddeley, who appears to be the only local magistrate since the time 0 Captain Beckham who is not afraid to administer the law . « But there was one evidence adaucea at the conference which we think » deserving of special notethat given D t the Government Analyst, Mr. lon* This gentleman's opinions are aI«P :haracterised by much shrewd common sense ; and his testimony as to the ex iations of leaky closets, the porousness >f boxes, the injurious use of ashes. «*» hiding away of the . contents of «■ boxes, and the filthy condition of tne iairies, is deserving of the strictest •* mention. But we refer particularly » his testimony as to the extreme pun sf the water supply. On that m Mr. Pond is at all times exceeding-. emphatic, and he says that the *»•* s the purest he ever found. *>J loes Mr. Pond's analysis extend 1 die search or discovery of,nucroDj >r the morbific germs, which are cow

monly regarded as the specific cause of typhoid fever 1 No one seems to doubt that the water supply is chemically pure. But is Mr. Pond prepared to say that there are not contained in the water those germs of disease which float away in the malodorous emanations that arise from human excreta tmd decomposing animal matter, which are deposited within measurable distance of the water supply ? No one supposes that it is the offensive smell that is in itself the cause of disease. Those chemical gases, we know, can become oxygenated and dissolved by mixing with the atmosphere. But are these germs oxygenated and dissolved 1 Or may they not, with their vitality unimpaired, even when freed from the malodorous gases by which they were originally surrounded, float onward until they descend with condensed vapours in the form of dew, or are brought down by showers of nun 1 Does Mr. Pond's analysis extend so far as to tell him of the existence or the non-existence of these subtle organisms, the discovery of which is among the modern triumphs of science? Or is he merely speaking of the absence of inorganic impurities, and the rougher organic forms of vegetable and animal life? As the quest is at the present time one as to the specific cause of typhoid, it is of the first importance that we should know this, when he is so exceedingly enthusiastic as to the absolute purity of our water supply.