Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1897 — Poison in the Ice Chest. [ARTICLE]

Poison in the Ice Chest.

A most Indignant man and one win. doesn’t hesitate to express himself is a physician, who has been treating an Auburn family for* malarial poisoning. One young lady died a few days ago out of the family, and one by one all the rest of the family have been prostrated. An expansive job of plumbing is in the house, and a careful inspection revealed no trouble w'th It, as ft had been recently overhauled. Finally the doctor said there must be something rotten In that Denmark, and another investigation was instituted, which resulted in finding that the drain of the ice chest, built Into the house,* was connected with the sewer, and that it was without a trap! As a result for months the family had been drinking milk and eating food fufl of bacterial poison poured into the ice chest from an the drainage in town. And all this occurred in one of the most pains-taking-ly constructed and most expensive places in the city. Evidently an inspector of plumbing is more necessary than an inspector of buildings, inasmueu as human life is of more value than houses. It is questionable If it be wise to connect Ice chests with the sewer In any event, but In such cases there should not only be a trap but a vent, so that tbe trap cannot possibly be syphoned. And In winter even In -oat case there is danger lest the trap may !b£ exhausted of water by evaporation. —Kennebec Journal.