Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-03
IMPURE WATER AND ITS DANGERS.
b R MosRs 7. RUNNELs, on INpIANA.


lie health than that Of the quality of water
used to sustain hum an life. Modern civilization
has imposed upon man requirements and re-
hnements which demand plentiful supply of
water. Only the quantity of water seems TO
have occupied the minds of those whose duty
has been to supply water, and very little atten-
ton has been given to the quality of the water
supply entering into the daily domestic econo-
my. From a report on the army and navy diet
scales find THE estimated quantity of liquid
of all kinds drank in the two services averages
1913 gallons per head per annum, or about two
quarts per day. Though this quantity is drank
by adults of the male sex, il is some criterion
the quantity drank by men women and children,
and it will not be wrong to assume that two
thirds or one hundred and twenty-five gallons
per head. is as much as is actually consumed
by mixed population in one year" DR..
Parkes 81 Us that IAN adult requires daily from
seventy TO one hundred ounces 0hree and a
half to five pints) for nutrition, but about
twenty to thirty ounces OF this quantity are
sometimes in the solid food" If we consume
every day such quantity of liquid to nourish
our bodies. we should be careful to have every
mouthful pure and wholesome. If the model
mar weighs l54 pounds, OF which lilo Is water
and only IS pounds dry matter" we may in
fact say that we are, in one way and another,
nearly all water. 1t is surprising that more
thought is not given to the purity Of water
supplies, when three quarters of our bodies
and large part of our daily food are made up
of water It is large factor in organic chemis-
try, and its quality must henceforth be subject
for critical examination by sanitarians If
zymotic diseases are to be brought under sub
lection and greatly diminished. Many years
ago the pollution Of the water courses began
to arouse public attention in England, and
Parliament appointed several Rivers Pollution
Commissions and other sanitary committees
to examine the water supplies, determine the
standard of purity for potable water, and
point out the dangers to be feared by the use
of water polluted by sewage. The second
English Rivers Pollution Commission, after
fbeso amin ion of frVn and
Piles of water, claimed to be orinkable, con-
demned river water because it is liable to con-
tamination from drainage of cultivated land.
towns and manufactures. 1t was the opinion
of the Commission that the "admixture of
even a small quantity of the infected dis
charges of persons suffering from cholera
or typhoid fever with q large volume
OF drinking water IS snfncient Tor the
using such water" Human excremental mat
ter is considered to be the most dangerous or
ganic substance which has yet been found in
drinking water and its death producing quail
titious matter of cholera or fever patients finds
its way into the water supply. 1t is certain
that impure water from any cause Is liable to
bring on disease. If the water is filtered
boiled it Is rendered purer aud its power to do
harm Is greatly diminished. Generally it is
only after the harm has been DONE and sick
ness and perhaps death has been caused by
the unsupported filthy water, that measures are
taken to find out where the disease originated.
It is often the most difficult task for one who is
not well informed of the dangers to be feared
from impure water, to fix upon the origin
given case the house may be supplied
with all that taste could suggest or gold pro-
cure, and no fault can be charged TO the kitch-
en-, cellar or sewer pipes, but on the examine
ton Of the back yard there will be found a sur
fscs dug well, a privy vault, end a cesspool in
close proximity. From the well all water for
family use has been drawn, and you will be
el,.r fo &c ttaIur
clear and tasting sweet" On making a chemi-
cal analysis of the water you will find unmis-
taxable evidences OF sewage contamination
Human excrement from the privY, and urine
thrown carelessly into the gully holes about
the yard, have been the means of injecting the
water to dangerous degree. If from no other
cause the wholesomeness of the water may be
destroyed by water from The kitchen contain
ing vegetable animal and almost every kind Of
refuse, and the water from the wash
house containing soap and animal
matter from soiled linen, or the drainage from
the stable may bring to the we'll animal and
think that small mixture of pollution from
the worst sources can do no harm. Some in
teligent phy sicians have advocated the theory
that the most impure water will be made pure
by filtration thrC ugh few feet Of earth and
that dug well located within ten or twenty
feet of a privy vault or cesspool is not liable
to be contaminated by animal matter. From
recent experiments, Professor PumpellY has
ascertained that sand interposes absolutely no
barrier between wells and the bacterial infec-
ton from cesspools, cemeteries, etc, lying even
at great distances, In the lower wet stratum of
sand. And 1t appears probable that dry grav-
ell, or possibly dry, very coarse sand, inter.
poses no barrier to the free entrance into
houses built upon them of these organisms,
which swarm in the ground air around teaching
cesspools, leaky drains etc., or In filthy made
ground of cities;" that "a house may be built
on thoroughly dry body of sand or gravel
and its cellar may be far above the level of the
ground-water at all times, and it may yet be in
danger of having the air OF its rooms contami-
mated by the germs from teaching cesspools
and vaults; for, If the drift of the teaching be
towards the cellar very wet seasons may ex-
tend the polluted moisture to the cellar walls,
whence, after evaporation, the germs win pass
into the atmospheric circulation Of the house "
These facts prove conclusively that the ordi-
nary dug wells of towns and cities generally
contain water poisoned to a great or less de-
gree by sewage, and the use OF such water for
domestic purposes should be prohibited by law.
Southern cities that consume from five hundred
to Eve thousand barrels of pork and four times
as many EGGS of lager beer and gallons of
whisky each day in the year, while they con-
fine 40 or so per cent. Of their population in
sitting tenement houses, school rooms and
workshops, and instead Of providing pure water
for drinking or bathing, permit water supplies
to be drawn from open wells and rivers filed
with sewage. or from neglected cisterns con-
tanning purifying organic matter-such cities,
whether situated in the swamps, like New Or
an annual visitation of yellow fever, cholera.
and other zymotic diseases. DIR. Williams of
London, wrote as follows: THE soil that drains
from habitations contains, in addition to ex-
crement, dirty water, the washings AMI rem
nants of animal and vegetable matters used as
food, and other offaL All these are mixed to-
gether and stagnate in the corrupting slough
that Is retaided in cesspools and privies. that
is carried into sewers. The worst nuisance Of
this description is the cesspool without drain
from it. unemptied for months or years, and
often imperfectly covered. IL continually
posons both air and water, and typhoid fever,
diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, dyspepsia, inap-
potency. general weakness and malnutrition
are the results of their pestiferous operations
acting in fferent degrees. Impure water used
as a drink is q common cause OF disease. River
or pump water near towns often contains de-
C aging vegetable or animal matters, and in
duces sickness, diarrhea, dysentery and
typhoid symptoms" At hugby, Tenn. during
the past summer, twenty three cases of typhoid
fever appeared. Seven of these cases died.
Visitors and citizens to the number OF fifty con-
tracted there lingering diarrh@a. The popu-
lation of Rugby is 200 The town is situated en-
an elevated plateau d. 90 feet above the level of
the sea The ground is of sandstone formation
A hotel was opened there Ia October. 1881
The water supply of nearly the whole town
was obtained from well and cistern in the
rear of the hotel DR. Whitaker Of Cincin-
natl. visited the place to efford relief and dis
cover If possible the source of the infection
1t was his opinion that human excI ement found
its way into the clstern and infected the drink
ing water. not only of the cistern but of the
well, which, removed from the cistern but
few feet, might easily receive its poison by per-
collation. through it's walls. "Decomposing ami
NAL and vegetable matter was found in the els
tern in such quantity as to sicken the
workmen engaged in cleaning it - Chemi-
cal analysis of the well water re-
vea'ed the presence in it Of a large
amount of organic matter. Cholera visited
London in 1S49 and 1854. Certain parts OF the
city were supplied with the Thames water, aud
1t was subsequently, ascertained that this
water produced the cholera. In 1s49 two com
panies-the Southwark Company and the
Lambeth Company-supplied all the districts
with water where cholera appeared. These
companies drew water entirely below Batter
sea Bridge, which Is within the tidal Influence
and within the influence of pollution
worst forms in all the districts whose water
supplies were furnished by these companies.
In 1854 the Lambeth Company drew its water
supply from the Thames above Teddington.
and above the sewage pollution of the river
Then the district supplied by the Southwark
Company had a very high mortality from the
cholera, while the district supplied by ths
Lambeth Company had very low mortality
from the same disease There are those who
think that running water will oxidize all the
harm out OF sewage and the objections of
Fever patients and as many towns in the
United States are supplied with water from
rivers to which sewage has access 1t is impor-
tant to know what dangers are to be feared by
drinking polute water from rivers From
1870 TO 1870 there were 54.522 deaths in the
United States from typhoid fever
Z. 900 persons died of enteric fever
rom 1871 to $780, During the ten years termi-
hating June /, 1857, 81, 500 persons persisted
rom cholera. and 20, $50 from dysentery. The
lext decade furnished &c. 402 deaths from scar
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