The New Lenox malaria case / by J.F.A. Adams.

  • Adams, J. F. Alleyne (James Forster Alleyne), 1844-1914.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The New Lenox malaria case / by J.F.A. Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/18 (page 15)
    the Commonwealth in rebuttal, among them the two following: — Dr. William G. Hills, of Boston. Mass., Instructor in Chemistry in the Harvard Medical School, testified that he had examined sample* of wat«*r taken from the Housatonic River, July 6. 18S1. The samples were taken at intervals from the South Street iron bridge in Pittsfield to the bridge at the New Lenox depot. Traces of sewerage were found in the water from the South Street bridge as far as leathers’ bridge, but none below that {x»int. Dr. Samuel 1). Brooks Springfield. Mass., stated, in reply to Dr. Brock, that chills and fever have pre- vailed, to his knowledge, about the water shops pond, in Springfield. Twenty eases have occurred in a sparse population, within half a mile of the pond, during the past three tears, including nearly ail the families in that vicinity. In each of three families living near the dam one to three cases have occurred. Cases from this locality were treater! at the City Hos- pital in July and August lest. At West Springfield, in a low. damp locality, there were twenty to thirty virulent cases in a single month in l«8l. The cases at Spring- field have been mostly on the side bordering the river. The Holyoke dam holds back the water, and excises the river bottom, at Springfield. The closing argument for the defense wa^ made by Judge Soule. He called attention to the difference of opinion among the medical and sanitary experts as to the causes of malaria, which rendered it impossible, he contended, to fix the rcspnnsilulity for the sickness at New Lenox upon the defendants dam. He ipioted from the testimony of nearly all the experts that the malarial poison is introduced from without, and is prevalent in epidemic form over a large region of country. He showed that about half the witnesses had not noticed any had smells in the vicinity of the reservoir, whence he argued that the fact of smells had been exaggerated. Finally, he referred to the importance of the interests involved, and said that the