The Hidden Killer in Tacoma's West End
A local health inspector finds a dairy operating in conditions 'too filthy for belief,' threatening a typhoid epidemic for families across the district.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
There is no doubt in the minds of people living in the West End but that contaminated milk is the cause of the recent outbreak of typhoid fever. An investigation of the surroundings of one of the dairies by which that section is supplied reveals a condition almost too horrible to contemplate. Filthy cows, filthy stables and yards, and no precautions taken to keep filth out of the milk provide every opportunity for the vilest contamination. Added to this is the fact that milk cans are washed with water known to contain typhoid germs and the cattle are given this same water to drink. Without any inspection, this milk is being peddled about the West End, and hundreds of families are being supplied with the poisonous liquid. Dr. Love is making a thorough investigation and states that he will soon be ready to make known the results of his researches.
“An investigation of the surroundings of one of the dairies by which that section is supplied with milk reveals a condition almost too horrible to contemplate.”
Public health investigations into local food sources remain a critical pillar of municipal governance. Today's regulatory environment for dairies and food safety in Tacoma is a direct evolution of these early, visceral struggles to connect living conditions to epidemiological outbreaks.
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