Chapter I: Preface

The following pages represent an attempt to put before the rural population a systematic treatment of those special subjects included in what is popularly known as Hygiene as well as those broader subjects that concern the general health of the community at large.

Usually the term "hygiene" has been limited in its application to a study of the health of the individual, and treatises on hygiene have concerned themselves almost entirely with discussing such topics as food, clothing, exercise, and other questions relating to the daily life of a person. Of late years, however, it has become more and more evident that it is not possible for man to live to himself alone, but that his actions must react on those living in his vicinity and that the methods of living of his neighbors must react on his own well-being. This interdependence of individuals being once appreciated, it follows that a book on hygiene must deal, not only with the question of individual living, but also with those broader questions having to do with the cause and spread of disease, with the transmission of bacteria from one community to another, and with those natural influences which, more or less under the control of man, may affect a large area if their natural destructive tendencies are allowed to develop.

Being written by an engineer, the following pages deal rather with the structural side of public hygiene than with the medical side, and in the chapters dealing with contagious diseases emphasis is attached to quarantine, disinfection, and prevention, rather than to etiology and treatment. The book is not, therefore, a medical treatise in any sense, and is not intended to eliminate the physician or to give professional advice, although the suggestions, if followed out, undoubtedly will have the effect of lessening the need of a physician, since the contagious diseases referred to may then be confined to single individuals or to single houses.

It has not been possible, within the limits of this one book, to describe at length the various engineering methods, and while it is hoped that enough has been said to point the way towards a proper selection of methods and to a right choice between processes, the details of construction will have to be worked out in all cases, either by the ingenuity of the householder or by the aid of some mechanic or engineer.

Finally, it may be said that two distinct purposes have been in mind throughout,--to promote the comfort and convenience of those living in the rural part of the community who, unfortunately, while most happily situated from the standpoint of health in many ways, have failed to give themselves those comforts that might so easily be added to their life; and in the second place, to emphasize the interdependence of the rural community and the urban community in the matter of food products and contagious diseases, an interdependence growing daily as interurban communications by trolley and automobile become easy.

Cities are learning to protect themselves against the selfishness of the individual, and city Boards of Health have large powers for the purpose of guarding the health of the individuals within their boundaries. The scattered populations of the open country are not yet educated to the point at which self-protection has made such authority seem to be necessary, and it is left largely to an exalted sense of duty towards their fellow-men so to move members of a rural community as to order their lives and ways to avoid sinning against public hygiene. In order to develop such a sense of honor, it is primarily necessary that the relation of cause and effect in matters of health shall be plainly understood and that the dangers to others of the neglect of preventive measures be appreciated. As a single example, the transmission of disease at school may be cited. Measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and diphtheria are all children's diseases, easily carried and transmitted, and held in check only by preventing a sick child from coming in contact with children not sick. No law is sufficient. The matter must be left to the mother, who will retain children at home at the least suspicion of sickness and keep them there until after all traces of the disease have passed away.

The health conditions in the open country, judged by the standard of statistics, are quite as good as those of the city. The comforts of country life are as yet inferior, and it is hoped that this book may do something to advance the standard of living in the families into which it may enter.

H. N. OGDEN.

ITHACA, NEW YORK, November 1, 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

VITAL STATISTICS OF RURAL LIFE

PAGES

Death-rate. Ideal death-rates. Death-rates in New York State. Accuracy of records. Effect of children. Death-rates of children. Small cities. Tuberculosis. Diphtheria, Influenza. Pneumonia. Old age 1-24

CHAPTER II

LOCATION OF A HOUSE--SOIL AND SURROUNDINGS

Damp soils. Location of house. Objections to trees. Space between houses. Composition of soils. Cancer and soil conditions. Topography. Effects of cultivation. Made ground. Water in soil. Drainage. Ground water 25-48

CHAPTER III

CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES AND BARNS WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTHFULNESS

Shutting out soil air. Position of outfall for drains. Dampness of cellar walls. Use of tar or asphalt. Dry masonry for cellar walls. Damp courses. The cellar floor. Cellar ventilation. The old-fashioned privy. Cow stables. Use of concrete 49-67

CHAPTER IV

VENTILATION

Effects of bad air. Modifying circumstances. Dangers of polluted air. Effect of changes in air. Composition of air. Organic matter in air. Fresh-air inlet. Position of inlet. Foul-air outlet. Size of openings. Ventilation of stables. Cost of ventilation. Relation of heating to ventilation 68-89

CHAPTER V

QUANTITY OF WATER REQUIRED FOR DOMESTIC USE

Modern tendencies. Quantity of water needed per person. Quantity used in stables. Maximum rate of consumption. Variation in maximum rate. Fire stream requirements. Rain-water supply. Computation for rain-water storage. Computation for storage reservoir on brook. Deficiency from well supplies 90-107

CHAPTER VI

SOURCES OF WATER-SUPPLY

Underground waters. Ordinary dug well. Construction of dug wells. Deep wells. Springs. Extensions of springs. Supply from brooks. Storage reservoirs. Ponds or lakes. Pressure or head 108-130

CHAPTER VII

QUALITY OF WATER

Mineral matter. Loss of soap. Vegetable pollution. Animal pollution. Well water. Danger of polluted water 131-152

CHAPTER VIII

WATER-WORKS CONSTRUCTION

Methods of collection. Spring reservoirs. Stream supplies. Dams. Waste weirs. Gate house. Pipe lines. Pumping. Windmills. Hydraulic rams. Hot-air engines. Gas engines. Steam pumps. Air lifts. Tanks. Pressure tanks 153-188

CHAPTER IX

PLUMBING

Installation. Supply tank. Main supply pipe. Hot-water circulation. Kitchen sinks. Laundry tubs. Hot-water boiler. Water-back, wash-basin, bath-tub. Cost of plumbing installation. House drainage. Trap-vents. Water-closets 189-207

CHAPTER X

SEWAGE DISPOSAL

Definition of sewage. Stream pollution. Treatment of sewage on land. Surface application. Artificial sewage beds. Subsurface tile disposal. Automatic syphon. Sedimentation. Underdrains 208-232

CHAPTER XI

PREPARATION AND CARE OF MILK AND MEAT

Bacteria in milk. Effects of bacteria. Diseases caused by milk. Methods of obtaining clean milk. City milk. Dangers of diseased meat. The slaughter-house 233-256

CHAPTER XII

FOODS AND BEVERAGES

The human mechanism. Digestive processes. Teachings of the digestive operations. Balanced rations. Human appetite. Effect of individual habits. Cooking. Muscular and psychic reactions. Consumption of water. Condiments and drinks. Tobacco. The drug habit 257-277

CHAPTER XIII

PERSONAL HYGIENE

Exercise. Clothing. Bathing. Mouth breathing. Eyes. Teeth. Sleep 278-294

CHAPTER XIV

THEORIES OF DISEASE

Effects of dirt. Blood resistance. Cell disintegration. Heredity. Age and sex. Occupation. Direct cause of disease. Parasites. Bacterial agencies. Antitoxins. Natural immunity. Chemical poisons. External causes 295-313

CHAPTER XV

DISINFECTION

Disinfecting agents. Antiseptics. Deodorizers. Patented disinfectants. Disinfecting gases. Sulfur. Formaldehyde. Liquid disinfectants. Carbolic acid. Coal-tar products. Mercury. Lime. Soap. Heat. Dry heat. Boiling water. Steam. Drying, light, and soil 314-331

CHAPTER XVI

TUBERCULOSIS AND PNEUMONIA

Tuberculosis. Individual resistance. Precautions by the consumptive. Cure of consumption. Pneumonia--the germ. Weather not the cause of pneumonia. Preventives in pneumonia. Infection of pneumonia 332-348

CHAPTER XVII

TYPHOID FEVER

Cause of the disease. The bacillus. Methods of transmission of typhoid. Construction of wells in reference to typhoid. Milk infection by typhoid. Infection by flies. Other sources of typhoid fever. Treatment of typhoid fever 349-363

CHAPTER XVIII

CHILDREN'S DISEASES

After effects. Preliminary symptoms. Contagiousness. Quarantine for scarlet fever. Measles. Characteristic eruption of measles. Whooping cough. Precautions against spread of whooping cough. Chicken pox 364-376

CHAPTER XIX

PARASITICAL DISEASES

Malaria. Mosquitoes and malaria. Elimination of mosquitoes. Limitation of mosquito infection. Yellow fever. Characteristics of the disease. Hookworm disease. Pellagra. Bubonic plague 377-395

CHAPTER XX

DISEASES CONTROLLED BY ANTITOXINS

Smallpox. Value of vaccination. Characteristics of smallpox. Treatment of smallpox. Diphtheria. Cause of the disease. Production of diphtheria antitoxin. Symptoms of diphtheria. Rabies. Tetanus 396-409