HH62/1/KIRKCU/53

Transcription

[Page] 52

the collecting tank. The inference was correct, at least in part; for
the water conduit between spring and tank is a hundred yards of
common field tile drain, which, probably draining a large area, excludes
neither the surface water nor the soluble matter of the soil. The
result, inevitable from the beginning, has been the pollution of the
water with artificial manure and animal excreta. And, further, to
judge by the full-bore rush of water from the drain, visible on opening
the tank, it is doubtful whether, in rainy weather, more than a minute
percentage of spring water ever lodged in the tank at all. Add to this
that the tank itself is of the most imperfect and inadequate kind, being
indeed only a common fire-clay trough, deepened by one or two layers
of perforated bricks (which merely strain out the larger masses of
earth), and on the surface protected almost not at all from the inrush
of surface washings.
In the light of facts set forth below, it is not permissible to regard
the water as the sole cause of the fever at the manse; but that it was
a powerful contributory cause, the evidence leaves no room to doubt.
Along with the milk, it probably also contributed to the super-normal
amount of disease in the cot-houses.

(d.) - MILK SUPPLY.
The milk supply to Balmaghie manse was from the neighbouring
farm of Bridgestone, where one fatal case of typhoid fever and two
cases of a nature suspiciously like typhoid have occurred. The onset
of the first case - that which ultimately was fatal - preceded the manse
case by about a fortnight; the other two cases must have begun about
the same time as the manse case. The two doubtful cases, though
certainly anomalous in character, are fairly to be regarded as springing
from the same causes and circumstances. These three cases, occurring
at a farm where milk was sold, justified the minute examination that
has since been made.
The question of cause now limited itself practically to this - is the
milk supplied from Bridgestone the cause of typhoid in the manse?
This involved another question - Is there any fair ground for believing
that the Bridgestone milk is contaminated? To both these questions
the following record is my answer.
First. The byre is badly lighted, badly ventilated, and floored in
part with wooden logs. The bad light makes cleaning difficult; the bad
ventilation concentrates dust and waste products of every kind; and
wooden log floors in a byre it is a physical impossibility to keep free
from unhealthy contamination and growth. These defects of structure
were aggravated by another circumstance. Just at the back door

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a large heap of byre manure lay in a pool of water, which, though
doubtless in part due to the unabsorbed recent rains, formed nevertheless
a stagnant and decomposing extract of manure. The requirements of
rigid proof forbid me to say that any one or all of these circumstances
could originate a specific fever such as typhoid; but by the general
consent of experts these are good circumstances for a fever-poison to
grow in, and at the least, to keep milk always pure where the possibility
of contamination is so great, would surpass the most systematic and
intelligent care even of a well-organised modern hospital.
Second. A scullery, opening directly on the kitchen, contains a sink
and a water grating. Sink and grating discharge into a tile drain which
passes the yard, under the buildings and opens on a field. The opening
showed very little evidence of recent or recurrent discharges. The
inference is that most of the water loses itself in the soil before ever
reaching the outlet - an inference verified by the recent necessary open-
ing of the drain. This drain has no ventilator; neither sink nor grating
has any trap; it follows that the drain ventilates freely into sink, scullery,
kitchen, and adjoining passages. It is obvious that the washing of
vessels at this sink, so exposed to the sloppy residue of many years,
constitutes a certain risk of contamination.
Third. From the scullery one passes through the kitchen along one
passage and across another to the milk-house. A servant's bedroom
opens off the first passage. At the head of the second passage stands a
larder. This last passage opens on the farm-yard. This amount of
isolation for a milk-house would certainly not satisfy many sanitary
authorities. One window the milk-house presents to the garden, another
to the yard. Each window is protected with perforated zinc. The floor,
which was relaid nine years ago, is of square fire-clay tiles. This is the
store-house for the milk of nine cows.
Fourth. Within eighteen feet of the garden window of the milk-
house (and the windows are the only ventilation) stands a privy, which
seems to have been long a source of nuisance. There is no opening to
the reception-pit; there are no facilities for emptying; there is in fine
no provision whatsoever against indefinite accumulations. Efforts
are made from time to time to diminish the inevitably offensive
condition of the closet; but these at the best are only feeble palliatives
of an unspeakable abomination. And, a thing almost incredible, but
told by a responsible person, this pit has not been emptied, certainly
for nine years, probably never since its erection some twenty-five or
thirty years ago. It follows that the ground between closet and milk-
house must be thoroughly impregnated with the sewage of all that period.
The milk-house atmosphere must be persistently contaminated with the