For additional info on both privy deposits and historic diseases, see:

Driscoll, Leslie Hunt
2000  Archaeologists and Parasites: The Real Scoop on Poop (and Other
Worries). pp. 107-124.

Crist, Thomas A. J.
2000  Smallpox and Other Scourges of the Dead. pp.79-106.

Both articles on in "Dangerous Places: Health, Safety & Archaeology" Poirier
& Feder, eds. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group

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At 02:30 PM 2/27/01 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 2/27/01 9:52:48 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< contamination by Scarlet Fever, change of household, desire for
> new items (most of this stuff dated to the >>
>Did anyone think to check wiht the Health Department to see if Scarlet Fever
>might still lurk in the privie? California State Parks dug a privie in Old
>Sacramento in the early 1970s and the State Health Department took soil
>samples, only to find Chinese Liver Flukes alive and well in an 1850s trash
>deposit. Sobering though, isn't it?
>
>Ron May
>Legacy 106, Inc.
>
>