Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-09-20
[ColfNIrXICATEp.

ia. as second-class mattcr.l
[ComIuSIcATED
The Danger OF Disease from Our
Water Supply.
The Baltimore Sun, ofa recent issue,
says: "The necessity of using pure
water cannot be too deeply impressed
on the mind at any time but now that
cholera is threatening the Western
world, pure water should be con.
slant object of endeavor'
As pure water is the greatest safe
guard against not only cholera, but
typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria
and many other diseases, it will be well
to look into the purity of our drinking
water, here. in Alexandria. Surely our
water cannot be too pure as long as the
stream that drains the thickly settled
country, lying between Shutters and
Seminary hills, runs into the race of the
Alexandria Water Company.
This stream, after receiving the sew
erage of the Episcopal High School,
runs through neighborhood where,
within q radius of a quarter Of mile,
the writer has counted twenty-five
shanties Several of which are immedi-
ately on its banks occupied by negroes.
These shanties, many Of which swarm
with children, have none of the conve-
nienccs of civilization, and filth and
refuse of all kinds are thrown either
into the stream, or on ground drained
by it. After leaving this settlement,
the stream within the distance Of three
quarters of mile, receives the entire
drainage from dozen or more dwell
ings. and five or six barn-yards. 1t
then runs underl the Little River pike,
Just west of the toll-gate, and enters the
race of the Water Company few hun
dred yards above the pumps that throw
the water into the reservoir. In the
winter and spring and during heavy
rains, this stream, at Il point near the
road leading from Shutters hill to the
Seminary, receives the water from
drain leading from marshy spot where
the sewer of the Theological Seminary
empties. For eight or nine months of
the year this stream runs freely and
boldly for the remaining three or four
its bed at many points is entirely dry,
but only to accumulate filth to be
flushed into our water supply by the
first rain a gentleman, whose place is
on the banks of this stream, told the
writer that on several occasions, know
ing that it flowed into the water supply
of the city, he had taken large dead
animals out of it. that had been washed
down from above. That he could not
help the entire drainage from his barn
yard running into it; and that the char
acter OF the stream was such that it was
not fit to run into the drinking water
of any community
One case of disease in the country
drained by this stream might cause
hundreds in our city, with the proper
ton of deaths that always accompany
an epidemic The Alexandria Water
Company ought not to subject our peo-
pie to such risks. Surely it should see
that no stream nor drainage of a doubt
full character enters the race from where
it leaves Cameron Run to the pump
house. 1t certainly can be no very diff
ficult matter to pipe the race at this
point of contamination.
The history of the cholera epidemic
in England in 1866 is extremely in
structive. The disease first broke out
in East London, when its victims num-
bered sixteen thousand, and Mr. Ern-
est Hart, thoroughly convinced by the
classical researches of Snow as confirm
cd by the Investigations of Farre and
Simon, decided that the origin of the
disease was to be looked for in the wa
ter supplied to the infected district,
nearly all of which was furnished by
the East London Water Works. Act
ing for one of the medical Journals, Mir.
Hart dispatched an engineer to the Oh
flee of this company to make inquiries
as to the source of the water supplied
by them. The engineer was positively
assured that nothing had taken place
which could possibly have caused the
dissemination of cholera through this
water, but refusing to accept this de-
NAL rs conclusive he discovered after a
patient investigation that the company
had recently made. some changes III its
tilterins apparatus. While these
changes were taking place water had
been drawn without being filtered, or
after very imperfect liberation,
directly from the river Lea.
A thorough investigation showed that
at Just that time the waters of the Lea
were contaminated with choleraic dis
charges from the drains of a cottage In
which family had recently come to
reside. Further inquiry showed that
this family had come from Southamp-
ton, which port they bad reached in
fected with cholera. They had been
allowed to pass on after il was supposed
that they had completely recovered.
This lesson cost the city of London
sixteen thousand lives. Are our own
citizens to receive some such, before
they are aroused to the danger of hay
ing q stream flowing into our water
supply, which stream within an area Of
two square miles drains q country in
habited for nine months of the wear BY
not less than five hundred people, many
of whom are negroes, knowing nothing
and caring less for any sanitary ar
rangements or laws. ].