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58
and his clothes for weeks or even months after the disappearance
of the last symptom of the malady.
The question arises, is diphtheria a drain disease, or does
the contagion find a congenial forcing bed in organic matter
during its various stages of decomposition upon the surface ?
Although circumstances would often appear to indicate the
latter as a favourite seat, there is little doubt that defective
drainage is contributary to the prevalence of the disease.
During 1888 the invasion of 115 houses was notified at the
office of the Department. A careful inspection in each case
revealed the existence of defects in the condition of the
drain itself or its inlets in 58 instances; but in 57 the system
of drainage was in no particular defective.
That the infected persons living in the houses of the latter
class may also in some instances have contracted the disease
from a drain source is not improbable. Children under the
age of ten years comprise 77 per cent, of the sufferers. It
has been noticed that children spending much of their time in
the streets, and others going backward and forward to school,
not infrequently find amusement in dropping stones between
the bars of the gratings which guard the openings into the
main sewer. Some of these openings, the ventilating shafts,
as you are aware, at all times emit large volumes of sewer
gas; others, consisting of the gullies at the road side,
occasionally during dry seasons. In several instances it has
subsequently come to the knowledge of the Inspector that
the child, immediately preceding the attack, had been observed
engaged in this dangerous pastime.