The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-02-19
YESTERDAYS PROCEEDINGS.


Expert Prudden's Tale of the Horrors
That Lurk in the Water.
The examination was continued yester-
day at Newark. DR.. P. Mitchell Prudden,
director of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of New York. testified upon the
disease germs which lurk in the water.
"These bacteria, he said, are for the
most part so extremely small as to be
utterly invisible to the naked eye and
only seen as ipdi yiduals by high powers
of the microscope, but they are most of
them endowed with capacity for enor-
nous MULTIPLICATION and growth, so that
II we take any material which contains
them aud put it into contact with certain
substances which act as bacterial food
they will grow right on the spot where
they were put. and after awhile will
form a little mass so large that it can be
seen by the naked eye. We see nothing
when we plant the material; that we
have planted anything at all is only evil
dent when many thousands of them have
grown upon the single spot.
AsIATIC CHOLERA
"The bacteria causing tuberculosis, for
example, on its lodgment in any part of
the body causes the growth of q little
mass about It which is liable TO dis
integrate and destroy the organs and TO
set up a general fever. The germ Of
typhoid tever acts somewhat differently.
To produce its effect il must get into the
the individual, where 1t rapidly
grows, producing a poison which
in the first place, usually cause
an irritation of the intestines
which results in diarrhe. and also is
absorbed into the bUdy at large, produc-
ing various deleterious effects. The action
OF the germ Asiatic cholera is in many
ways similar to that OF the typhoid fever
germ
Drinking water is common means of
conveyance of some of these bacterial
diseases, especially those of typhoid fever
covered that although polluted wa
ter which had been exposed
to the so-called natural purifying
agencies might appear by chemical ex
animation to have freed itself from
harmful ingredients that it still may
contain, even in enormous numbers, the
bacterial elements which are concerned
in the production of serious disease. and
which are not removed from the water
by mere chemical processes OF which
chemical analysis take cognizance.
WATER CAUSES TYPHOID FEVER
"The typhoid epidemic in Providence
in 1883 was caused by the presence of the
very large proportion of the bacteria
found in the air and in the soil and in
water, even in sewage water, are perfect
ly harmless. There are dangerous bac-
terra in the sewage polluted water. They
come from the bodies of persons suffer-
ing from the diseases which they cause
They have been actually counted. and it
mas been found that there may be as
many as 1900 TO a teaspoonful.
With regard TO the typhoid feve germ,
it has been found that it may, under
favorable conditions, multiply and in
crease In great numbers Ia both pure
water and in dirty water. In cases IN
which they do not actually multiply, or
after time when they have done so, q
certain proportion of these germs in
water may and usually do die, bur the
typhoid germ In particular is very resist.
ant to the delelerious effects or such 4
condition.
"A river largely polluted with sew