Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-02-08
Drainage for Health and for Profit.
BY PROF. NORTON s. TowNsHEND, NJ. D
AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.

BY PROF. NORTON s. TowNsHEND, NJ. D.,
AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.
On the subject of drainage for health.
I need say but little, for we all know
that health is promoted by it in three or
four ways. You drain swamp and
marshy lands which give fevers and
aeue. Such lands in the condition we
find them, sometimes produce these dis
eases. Precisely what it is we don't
know. Some think it is living germ,
a low organism; something Of the same
nature as the yeast plant that Brother
Norton has been talking about. The
growth, whatever it is, is generated In
wet lands. l recollect being in Colum-
bus thirty years ago. L frequently
drove out In this part of the country
with DIR. Howard, and he would leave
uuinine at every house. When was
about locating the College farm up here,
1 said no, had left too much quinine in
this locality. But now there is no more
here than elsewhere; drainage has cor
rected the evil.
In the fens of Lincolnshire, England.
they had the worst kind of ague; every
BODY had it; some had their chills every
day, some every other day or every
third day; many died of it; one of the
great men of the day, Oliver Cromwell,
died of this fen ague. Now the fens
have all been drained, and there is no
more fen ague. So in many portions of
this country, good drainage has put an
end to malarious diseases.
When whole country is under drain
age there is less aqueous vapor. The
more aqueous vapor in climate, the
more inclination there will be to con-
sumption. Drainage, by making coun-
try drier, makes it healthier. Almost
all disease germs float on vapor. If any
infectious disease were in this room, the
germs being liberated would be diffused
about the room, and we who are expos
ed might take the disease. The cir
cumstances that would most favor 1t
would be that the room contains a large
amount of aqueous vapor. The farmer
knows that in this country there is a
serious difficulty affecting sheep which
feed on damp land; what we call paper
skin, caused by parasite three or four
inches long, filling the air tubes and OBJ.
structing respiration. The complete
natural history of that parasite we don't
know, but it probably lives in some
mollusk or insect that haa been thrown
out of the water by overlooking streams
Sheep are subject, in portions OF Europe
TO liver rot, the ducts of the liver are
filled with parasites called tiukes. How
do they get thereP. Now the entire
history of the huke is known. In one
stage il is foundfin little mollusk, and
water spread over a meadow in floods
leaves the germ, Ova or eggs, where
sheen get them, and soon die of rot.
l might say, in connection with drain.
age. a word for sewerage. One hundred
and fifty years ago the death rate in the
city of London was eighty iii thousand
per annum. And by dying at that rate
the average duration of life WAS only
twelve and half years. of late years
~
improved that it is now zone of the
healthiest cities in the world; the death
rate is reduced to twenty-four in thou
sand, the average duration of life has
increased to forty years, and one has a
chance TO reach middle life. There are
towns where the death rate has been
reduced to about fourteen per thousand
per annum, and there the average of life
amounts to sixty-nine years. If they go
much further they will have to move
out of town to die at all. IL the average
is sixty-nine years, what will be the age
of tue old? The case is not as striking
in this country, because we have not
given the same attention to registration.
but we would find the results practical
ly the same.
| will now pass from the subject of
drainage for health to, drainage for
profit. or farm drainage. .
have already said that when land is
drained the water passes away under
ground and consequently the lands are