The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-07-05
Our Drinking Watcr-The Pollution
OF tho Subtcrranean Supply.

Our "~sOA-AAo AOAusAOh
OF tho Subtcrranean Supply.
Among the recent accounts of cholera cases
in the West one of the most suggestive is
that from near Cairo in which, it is stated,
several men were fatally attacked from drink
ing impure water. 1t is strange, indeed, that
in land of abundant showers and rainfall
there should be any occasion for using water
less potable and pure than that which distils
in crystal floods from the clouds of heaven.
But it is fact beyond question that the drink
ing water of many Of our thriving and popu-
lous towns and villages is unfit for man or
beast It may be instructive, if not very fiat
tering to the public, to look at some of the
sources of pollution, which should startle every
community to inquire into the character of its
water supply. To go no further for an illus
tration than to our neighboring cities, we
find that the analytic examination of the Ho-
boken and Newark water supply, as lately
presented in the able report of Professor
Wurz, shows On alarming state of things.
The chemical analysis Of the Passaic water,
as drank by our Jersey sister Cities in Winter,
discloses the presence of large quantities Of
nitrates, derived from the oxidation of the
animal execretions and other refuse that pass
into the river at Newark, Paterson and else
where from sewers, slaughter houses and other
sources. This water, before its arrival at
Newark, allows the termination and supports
the growth Of green confervoid vegetation in
its bosom, but the sewage from that city
forms an additional contamination, which the
chemist tells us may be initially represented
by about four grains Of purifying matter to
each gallon of water. This is the bright side
of the picture and shows what occurs IN mid
winter, when the mercury is often near zero;
but as the report very properly states, in the
absence Of any analysis of Summer water, it
may safely be assumed that the midsummer
heat very greatly intensifes putrefaction,
while the volume of water brought down by
the stream in July to attack and neutralize
the fecal matter is very greatly diminished,
leaving a liquid which proclaims its unsavory
and unsafe conditions to the dullest oltacto-
ries
But great as is this source of epidemic danger
to our large cities supplied from the contigu-
Gus watercourses, there is another of an equally
momentous nature in the use of the subterra-
mean supplies OF water by pumps, springs and
imperfectly coated cisterns. The waters Of our
wells and suburban springs are clear and
limpid as those of the ''arrowy Rhone," but
they are impregnated with the fltrations of
the soil, the leakage Of the pestlential sewer
and the countless defiling matters which, from
flth-loaded soil in every metropolitan city as
well as in every hamlet, ooze through the
earth and impart their chemical constituents
to the underground water 1t is not ques-
toned that the soil itself, especially when
sandy, is purifying agent but there are in
every city and village many places where this
purifying agency is overborne by the greater
and ceaseless deposit of polluting matter. If
the mouth or walls of the well are not her.
metcally sealed and protected, the rain wash
ings increase the sedimentary discharge into
the water, and, in some places, even artesan
wells, as at Tours, have elected the remains of
plants, branches, moss and other debris car
ried by previous and recent rains into the
depths of the earth. Mr.. Prestwick, the eminent
English geologist and President of the Geolo-
gical Society of London, during his investi-
cations of the London pumps and wells and
others, found that this subterranean contami-
nation was source of the utmost peril to all
the surrounding neighborhoods mot q
county, not q district, not valley, not the
smallest tract Of permeable strata" he says,
sis free from this plague spot Bright as the
&C. md >bs foot
or smell, it passes without suspicion until cor
rupted beyond the possibility of concealment.
He also found that the damage in very deep
wells was quite decided and perceptible, and
even penetrated to the deep-seated and appar-
emily inaccessible springs, having its vanish
ing point only in the lower greensands. The
well or underground cistern, cut of from all
aeration, which would serve to neutralize many
of its polluting principles, necessarily becomes
putrescent in q certain degree. The mere
circumstance of the limpidity and brightness
of its water or its GOODNESS should not delude
the thirsty and poor around it to drink what
may prove ON accumulative poison. Even
when the river water in our hydrants is discol-
ored by mud it is better than the most pellucid
and coolest well water The water of the Chi
nese river Yangtsze like that of almost all
turbid streams, is a safe drinking water, as the
depositing Of the detritus mechanically pre-
cipitates other impurities, while the clear water
in the gorges of the Upper Stream produce
goitre. SO that, in no season of the year,
where good water supply from the
river can be maintained, ought subter-
raneen water TO be used, unless for manu-
featuring purposes. Many of our most
popular and crowded soda fountains boast
of using spring water, which. when
not brought from great distances beyond
towns, is doubtless fertile source of derange-
ment of the public health, and should be
abolished by municipal law. There can be
| No doubt that if this suhiact WAS properlY put