Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-21

and this should continue until the city would
be able financially to obtain purer water from
the mountains. Subsequent to that time, in
answer to the published recommendation of
one of the City Trustees to obtain our water
supply from springs in Lake " Como" between
G and | streets, l recommended, through the
daily press, that the city reserve the surplus
revenue from the sale of water until the
amount (S25 900 or SO 600 per year, would justify
the city, by Act of the Legislature, to issue
bonds, due in twenty or thirty years, with the
accumulated revenue sufficient to bring pure
water from the mountains The bonds should
not exceed an amount, the interest on which
could not be met by the surplus revenue from
water rents, with small sinking fund with
which to liquidate the bonds at maturity This
would supply the city with clear. wholesome
water in a few years, the cost of which would
not be felt by anyone.
DR.. T. w. HUNTINGTON
Stated in effect: If a dilution of the sewage of
Redding Chico Red Bluff, Marysville. and Fol-
som with its crowded prison, be innocuous; if
solution charged with the results of vegetable
and of animal decomposition the spage
water of foul sloughs and enormous tracts of
tule lands certainly must be-is a fit water sup
ply for a large city, then it would be difficult to
find running water anywhere that could not be
so used with perfect safety. That the water
now dispensed, teeming as it surely is with
germ life and putrescent matter is an open
menace to the sanitary welfare of Sacramento,
is selfevident In the light of facts set forth
this evening, further argument would be little
better than waste OF words.
DIR. W. r. cLuNEss SAID:
am much pleased with the idea of discussing
this important subject, for it is one OF practical
significance aid directly concerns the sanitary
welfare of our whole community and indirectly
our financial welfare as well. And was graft
fed few evenings since, when at a meeting of
the Board of Health, the essayist of the evening
briefly outlined the position he proposed taking
opinion, are sound, and it has occurred to me
that we should discuss subjects of this character
subjects OF "A general or public nature, more
frequently than we do, &nd not emily discuss
them, but also give the results of our deliber-
ations to the press for publication. Especially
should we do this in connection with sanitary
matters, for although doctors are proverbially
an impracticabie set of men and generally in
competent to deal with business matters as
efficiently as those who are educated in such
affairs in the hard school of daily experience
yet there are certain departments of business
life so Intimately blended with the physicians
vocation regarding which his opinions and
counsel are OF far more value than those of any
other class of men. We should, therefore be
ever ready and willing to express our opinions
freely upon such subjects, and we should not
hide them under bushel as we do to a great
extent when we publish them in medical Jour
nails. Such subject is the one under discus
sion this evening. and | have been induced TO
oiier these preliminary observations because of
the fact that some of our members objected to
the publication of anything which might be
said here this evening in any other than through
the usual channels.
But let us return to the question-our water
supply. There are three things especially es-
sential for the maintenance of the health of
community these are, pure air. pure and
healthy food and pure and unaduiterated water
Given these three, and we know that the health
happiness and prosperity of the people must
almost OF necessity follow But let our climate
be ever so favorable and our food ever so whole
some and abundant, it is certain that sickness
{
our water be Insufficient i'll quaint or impure
in quality. Our supply, as every one knows
has It's source III the adjacent mountains, and if
It reached us i'll its normal condition would be
unsurpassed III purity and adaptability to our
requirements. But what is the true state of
affairs? In all countries and in all ages rivers
and streams of water are and have been the
natural sewers of a country. Legislate as you
may, enact the most stringent laws possible for
the maintenance of our water-courses in a pure
and healthiul condition, fence them in if you
choose and place Watchmen upon their banks
at every mile of their course and yet the amount
of filth and nastinesS that will gain access to
them will Re incalculable.
In our own case, although that portion of terri
tory through which our water flows before it
reaches Us is but sparsely settled yet the amount
of filth emptied into il daily from the time il
takes its faint beginnings i'll the farther regions
OF the Slerras until II reaches our doors, will
surprise any OF you If you but endeayor to form
an estim ate. Add to this the various tributaries
Of the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba and Ameri-
can rivers consider the number of people liv-
ing upon and adjacent to these streams the cat
lie, horses, hogs, sheep, dogs cats, and the Lord
knows what not; the filth deposited from the
various steamers and crafts sailing upon the
navigable portion of the Sacramento, and reflect
upon the fact that the waste matter that which
is cast Oft as being of no further use Is all or
nearly ALL directly or Indirectly, emptied into
these streams and carried to our doors and there
pumped into our hydrants, and then. without
the slightest attempt at publication used for
drinking and all other domestic purposes But
" are told that it comes to us so largely diluted
that any deleterious properties it may contain
are reduced to the minimum. Nevertheless it
comes to us, and II Is lmpregnated with the
of filth referred to, together with an
occasional corpse and the carcasses of thou
sands OF dead and decomposing animals, and
yet we drink and use it daily, and without re-
lection or protest. And has it ever occurred to
you. Mr.. President. that several hundred prison
ers, many of whom are the otfscourings of the
earth, diseased with syphilis and other consti,I-
.ional and communicable diseases, are daily
casting all of their filth into the American river
about twenty miles above the suction pipes
which supply with water? And believing as
do in the germ theory of disease. and knowing
water to be one of the best carriers of many of
he deleterious germs am convinced that from
his source alone we are i'll great danger
Al irregular intervals for the past twenty years
Or more typhoid fever has suddenly and mex
plicably appeared amongst U.s. and each time
claimed number of victims. AS physicians
and conservators OF the public health we en-
ieayored upon each occasion to ascertain its
origin and cause, and by pretty general consent
twas attributed TO foul and defective sewers
md sewer pipes | for one believe our sewers
% be productive of much sickness and many
leaths annually, yet a careful inquiry into the
matter has led to the conclusion that the sew
Ars, like the human livers, are convenient
hingS to blame, whereas the real cause. the /
ons ct origo mali, is something entirely differ
mt In the instances referred TO I feel morally !
certain that our sewers had but little to do with
'ausing our feyers, and that the real cause |
should be ascribed 10 our drinking water.
Whether or not typhoid fever can ever be |
de novo, and result from the combi- |
nation Of such filth as | have alluded to- to |
which must be added the accumulated filth |
md refuse stored up in tens of thousands of |
lcres OF tule lands and exposed to an almost |
orrid temperature for several months of the !
'ear, / shall not attempt to discuss tonight; |
)ut aside from this reasonably probable source |
u cause, who can say that single case of |
Uphold fever occurring at Marysville at Fol |
'ther point accessible to any of the rivers or |
treams above US, was not the real cause of the |
prevalence of the disease in our midst one |
II all the occasions referred to. | believe it to !
,e more than probable.
Many OF you doubtless recollect having read !
If the prevalence of typhoid fever, few years
go, in one the large towns OF England, occur |
ing at a time when there had previously been |
season of general heaitntulness, and yet with
'ut any apparent cause many of the iDhabi-
ants were suddenly stricken with the disease
ne iOcdl duthoIItieS ndSIlp exhausted lielT
esourceS in vain, Il commission of competent
XpeTts was sent from London, with view to a
olulion OF the problem Much time was spent
BY them in making house-to-house inspection,
ct no adequate cause could be assigned for so
eneral an epidemic. All sources from which
he disease could possibly take its origin were
aref,llly examined, but without satisfactory re
ultS. Al this juncturc, gentleman who had
zen observing the efforts of the commission
enturcd to suggest that he thought he could en-
lghten them rs to the cause of the epidemic.
We have, said he. typhoid feyerin that house,
nd IN that one, aud in this other" pointing to
ach of several houses in which one or more
asses were known to exist " In that one across
he street, in my house. adjoining in this one
nd in that other, pointing as before to several
esidenceS in the vicinity of those already
ingled out, and evidently under similar by
ienic influences, there is no typhoid fever"
. Different milkmen." said he, supply the two
cts OF houses, and | am confident if you but
roiit judiciously by this information you Will
eadlly ascertain the cause of this epidemic"
he dairy from which the milk was supplied to
ne sick families was soon reached, and was
)und to be- . model of neatncss and cleauli-
esS the water which supplied il was clear as
al aud