During the first two decades of the 20^th century, diarrheal deaths among American infants and children surged every summer. Although we still do not know what pathogen (or pathogens) caused this phenomenon, the consensus view is that it was eventually controlled through public health efforts at the municipal level. Using data from 26 major American cities for the period 1910-1930, we document the phenomenon of summer diarrhea and explore its dissipation. We find that water filtration is associated with a 15 percent reduction in diarrheal mortality among children under the age of two during the non-summer months, but does not seem to have had an effect on diarrheal mortality during the summer. In general, we find little evidence to suggest that public health interventions undertaken at the municipal level contributed to the dissipation of summer diarrhea.

²⁰世纪前二十年，每年夏天美国婴儿和儿童因腹泻死亡的人数都会激增。尽管我们仍然不知道是什么病原体（或多种病原体）导致了这种现象，但共识是，通过市级公共卫生努力，这种现象最终得到了控制。我们利用 1910 年至 1930 年期间美国 26 个主要城市的数据，记录了夏季腹泻现象并探讨了其消散情况。我们发现，在非夏季月份，水过滤可以使两岁以下儿童的腹泻死亡率降低 15%，但似乎对夏季的腹泻死亡率没有影响。总体而言，我们发现几乎没有证据表明市一级采取的公共卫生干预措施有助于夏季腹泻的消退。