Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-09-17
Water As a Poison.

/
That water, which is such an essential
of health and life, should be at the same
time one of the most common causes of
| disease and death is a fact, however
| anomalous, which it is impossible to
deny. That which we have been wont
TO regard, from its freshness and limpid
| ity, as the very type of all that is inno-
cent and wholesome is proved to be in
many instances only masked poison of
the most malignant kind.
People conscious of the tricks of trade
are naturally quite alive to the probable
| dangers of every article of food and
! drink which the greediness for gain of
the tradesman or manufacturer may
| prompt him to adulterate. They are not
| ignorant of the chances of getting sand
in their sugar, chicory in their coffee,
copperas and iron filings in their tea,
water in their milk, and dye-stuffs in
their wine, and consequently breakfast,
dine and sup with more or less conscious
ness that they are daily victims to
process of slow poisoning. Few, how
ever, gulp down their glass of water
without sense of perfect safety, and
| feeling of congratulation that in imbibing
this draught of natures own brewing
they have momentarily escapedf from the
poisonous connections of fraudulent art.
We would be sorry, if it were not neces-
sary for their own good, to arouse these
confiding folk from their tranquil but
| dangerous delusion. We are obliged to
| tell them that man adulterates even the
water which bountiful and beneficent
Providence has supplied in such whole
someness and abundance.
n tho inst n nf tho admit tinn IF
water, however, it is not the wickedness
of man, but his ignorance, which is the
cause Of the fatal mischief. A blunder
in diplomacy is said to be worse than a
crime, and the apothegm might be appro-
priately extended to the conduct of life.
Mistakes from ignorance, and the pig
headed obstinacy which is its twin broth.
er, are more prolific of mischief to socie-
ty than all the Astounding roguery of the
world.
Bounteous as nature has been in sup.
plying it, it is very rare for person to
find glass of pure water. 1t might be
supposed that in the country, away from
the thousand corrupting influences of
the crowded community, there would be
a greater certainty than in the town of
shaking ones thirst with safety. 1t is,
however, generally the reverse, for in
the metropolitan cities especially there
| are now supplies of water obtained from
sources and conducted in ways guarded
against every chance of pollution. In
rural places, on the contrary, however,
the water is drawn from the most access
ible point, WITHOUT any regard from
whence it cometh or whittier it goeth.
| To the water that is ordinarily drank
is chiefly attributed the spread, if not
the origin, of the most malignant and
widely fatal diseases to which human
beings are liable The murderous chol-
era and the foul stream are as close COM
| panions as death and corruption. Ty-
| phoid fever, which kills outright over
10000 persons in England every year,
and sickens at least 100000 more during
the same time, is attributed almost ex-
clusively to the polluted water drank.
The way in which this water pollution
occurs will be obvious to the most super
fetal observer. Who can see the close
proximity of privy, cess-pool and well or
fountain which are usually grouped to-
| gether as if, like the various organs of
the human body, they were all parts of
the same system, without concluding
that they must necessarily be in state
of constant interchange of functions
The well must, of course, by this init
mate relation communicate in the freest
manner with cess-pool and privy and be
constantly receiving not only their
poisonous carnations of gas but the
foul contents themselves in substance,
which pass with the utmost readiness
through the soil, even to great distances.
1t should be understood that the smallest
| possible particle--so small as not vet to
have been capable of detection by the
acutest eye of science with the help of
all the ingenuity of modern mechanism
/ --of the poison, whatever it may be, of
cholera, typhoid fever or other malig-
nant zymotic diseases is sufficient to
start into malignancy any of these fatal
affections. Knowing this, the danger of
bringing well into proximity with privy
will be obvious. Mr.. Simon, the medical
officer of the Privy Council, in report
to the Lords Of the Privy Council, pre-
pared for submission to the English Par
lament, says of typhoid fever that it is
"a disease which solely prevails through
the pollution Of atmosphere and drinking
1ater Nth ercreneat" He adds: 1.-THE
result of an investigation relating to
twenty-five towns, with an aggregate
population of 10000 inhabitants, was to
show the exemption which local popula-
honS opeaiu lIOui CuoicIh, typHOlu lever
and other endemic bowel affections is in
proportion as the local soil, air and
water are kept free from ercremental pol
luton"
The astonishing power held by the mi
nutest particle of typhoid poison, how
ever diluted, of conveying its malignancy
far and wide is well illustrated by a fatal
incident which lately occurred in
London. A whole district was ravaged
by typhoid fever, and after careful in
ves:igation the origin of the disease was
traced to the use by its inhabitants of
milk obtained from a common source
A member of the family of the milkman
had been stricken by typhoid fever, and
it was inferred, from the proximity of
the privy and the well in general use on
the farm, that the water of the latter
had been infected by the poisonous con
tents of the former. 1t was found. on
investigation, that the milk cans-al.
though 1t does not appear, as might
naturally be supposed, that the milk It.
self was diluted-had been washed by
! this water, which had thus poisoned their