Death Germs In Pullmans

DEATH GERMS IN PULLMANS

Modern Luxury In Palace Cars Declared a Menance to Public Health.

   "The modern palace car, with its many decorations and draperies, is a menance to the public health.  Railroad coaches should be made as plain as possible in order that they may be cleansed thoroughly after each trip." Dr. James A. Elkton made the above statement at the thirteenth annual meeting of the New York State Association of Railrway Surgeons the other night in New York.

   "Every medical man," he continued, "knows that the origins of a large proportion of communicable diseases is traceable to the direct with the healthy.  The transmission is most likely to occur by protracted contact with the person or surroundings which the infected have contaminated.  For many reasons the ordinary railroad coach, because of its varied use and occupancy, might furnish a fruitful opportunity, for the dissemiation of disease. On account of the carelessness of the public, the railroad companies are to a lamentable degree afforded encouragement for laxity in the matter of hygenic regulations.

   "Yet railroad companies beautify their vehicles and vie with each other in the matter of design and ornamentation in utter disregard for the important matter of hygenic conditions.

   "Crowded immigrant ships bring contagion to our shores, and the railroads, unless some wise sanitary regulations be made, may become a potent vehicle in scattering it broadcast through the land."

  The doctor also argued for a more healthful distribution of air through railway coaches.

   After the conclusion of Dr. Elkton's address a paper written by Dr. G.P. Conn of Concord, N. H., dealing with the same subject, was read, and then the meeting discussed the matter and agreed that it was time that something should be done to make the traveling public less liable to infection.