XXXV. Health
There was a recurrence of typhoid fever more than
once during the Seventh Period, 1865–95. The number
of cases in the interval between February, 1875, and
April of the same year, was so alarming that the outbreak
threatened to reach the full sweep of an epidemic. Fifty
of the young men,—a very large proportion of those who
had matriculated,—were stricken with the disease, and
five of them succumbed to it. It was the general opinion
that this wave of sickness had its springs in the location
and construction of the sewers, and a plan was adopted
for the removal of the worst defects of these drains.
The University had, during so many years, been so free
from serious distempers that the former board of health,
composed of members of the medical faculty, appears to
have sunk in abeyance; but in July, 1875, it was revived
by the Visitors. In addition to the medical professors,
the professor of chemistry was appointed to
membership in the new board. These officers were empowered
to recommend to the executive committee whatever
sanitary measures they should consider expedient or
imperative; and they were also authorized to protest, if
they should be convinced that the proctor was acting unwisely
in any step which he should see fit to take to conserve
the health of the students. Fortunately for the
comfort of the latter, there was in existence at this time a
fully equipped infirmary; and they were entitled, by the
payment of a definite fee at the beginning of the session,
to enjoy the gratuitous services of a physician, and also of
nurses, should their condition obviously require it.
Although the sanitary condition of the University was,
on the whole, satisfactory after 1875, yet there was
still some debate among the members of the Faculty as
to whether the existing system of sewerage ought not to
be abandoned in favor of a more modern one; and this
view was apparently justified by the cases of typhoid fever
that continued to show themselves from time to time.
There was, for instance, during the session of 1883–84, a
slight recrudescence of the disease. As the cases that
now occurred,—about five in all,—had come to the surface
in but a single Range, and that too in one section
only, where there had been at least one case the year before,
it was thought by the board of health that the disrepair,
now more or less flagrant in the aspect of all the
dormitories, was the possible cause of the distemper that
had broken out in this particular Range. There had,
however, been no deaths in the ranks of the students
during the previous three years. Sanitary alterations
were now made in several of the pavilions on the West
Lawn and also in two of the hotels on West Range;
but it was not until July, 1886, that the general sewerage
works which had been projected were completed
and put in use and such a volume of water added as to
render practicable the constant flushing of the pipes.
At last, in 1888, the committee on health was able to
predict in their report to the Board of Visitors that
"with the abundant supply of pure water, the good sewerage
and drainage, the effective policing of the grounds,
and the well-equipped infirmary which we now have, disease
need not hereafter be feared." This was undoubtedly
a correct anticipation if a serious epidemic alone
was thought of, but sporadic instances of fever continued
to occur. During the session of 1892–93, there were several,
which had been produced by germs from a contaminated
can of milk; and two years later, there were
five, which were traced to water from an infected spring.
The alarming epidemics of the past, however, were not
again to be repeated, and this was due to the clearer
perception of the origin of the disease which had now
been obtained by the medical profession, and to the
skilful employment of the preventive measures suggested
by the researches of modern science. It is indicative of
the more liberal attitude of the Faculty that they were
now strongly of the conviction that the ardent cultivation
of athletics by the mass of students had brought about
a very satisfactory improvement in the condition of their
general health.
