Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/531

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
TYPHOID-FEVER POISON.
515

sweep the summit. The slope of the hill east of the infected locality is of much lighter grade than that of the western ridges, and is thickly built up with small frame houses, except that about one hundred yards south of the group of houses, shown in the cut, the slope of the ridge is covered to the extent of twelve acres by the city cemetery, filled by

Explanation.a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, houses; L and C, streets; w, w, sewer and house drains; p, privies; s, f, u, v, wells. The Arabic numerals attached to the houses indicate the number of cases of fever in each. The Roman numerals indicate the order in which each house was invaded by the fever. n, sewer opening in the street gutter. M, uninfected houses.

eight thousand interments, and still used as a burying-ground. This second valley differs from the other in being gradually narrowed in its northern extension, so that the streets L and C gradually approach and enter each other at an acute angle about one hundred yards north of the scene of the infection. The little group of houses shown in the map are isolated by vacant lots to the north and south. The houses were one story frame, gable ends faced to the street, neat and comfortable, and were, with one or two exceptions, little freeholds, occupied by their owners, tidy and industrious Germans, except that the houses f and g were occupied, one by English and the other by Irish-American families. The houses were built two upon each city lot of sixty-six feet front by one hundred and twenty feet deep, and separated from each other by light picket and board fences. Several of the owners turned their ground to account by growing vegetables. At an average distance of twenty feet to the rear of each house were the usual privy-vaults, all of them too shallow and badly cared for. The water-supply