The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-03-16
FILTER /! FILTER! FILTER!
That is the Only Way to Secure Water
That is Fit to Drink.
THE BACTERIA ARE USEFUL,
SO Says Prof sedgewick In u Lecture on
Sewage and Drainage - He Advises
Worlds Fair Visitors to Drink No
Water Unless 1t Has Been Boiled.

iroiessor Wlllam Il. SeugWlck ueHV-
cred his second sanitary lecture at the
Sayles Memorial hall last night, on
"Purlfieation OF Water and Sewage" "
Those who heard the professors lecture
Monday night on Drinking Water and
Disease" will be glad 10 know that he
has ample remedies to suggest for the
evils that he then unfolded. He believes
implicitly in filtration. He said in part:
The housewife generally throws slop-
water out OF the window onto the
ground. When the quantity of the siops
is not too great nature takes care of it
herself. So with manure or dead bod les
This is what we call the natural process
The earth is the home of bacteria, but
ther. are good and bad bacteria. There
are thousands of kinds that are not only
harmless but beneficial. Still earth is
not the natural home of bacteria. They
are there by importation. The great
majority OF bacteria are scavengers.
IL is by these scaveuger bacteria that
refuse is cared for There are very few
disease germs. Take Tor example a bot
tie of diluted milk which Is "A good sam
pie of sewage. Here among other things
we have salt. plain, ordinary salt The
per cent of solid material is SO small that
sewage in this country cannot be used
economically as u fertilizer. The prob
lem OF our surrounding towns is where
10 put their sewerage. There are three
ways to get rid of sewage; to throw il
away as Stops, to put IL on the laud or To
reduce IL by chemical means.
In the city of Worcester the people
have been In sore straits to dispose of
their sewerage. The practice of dump
ing 1T into the river has raised hue and
cry from the inhabitants below.
III you add to sewage some lime or cop
the fnralnn ms iG mi
and the clear water remains on top. In
Worcester they have adopted this method.
The solid residuum Is
Cut Up Into Bricks
and carted away. But this II ethod only
Clarifies without purifying the water.
The plan is used extensively iu London
and will be adopted at Chicago during
the Worlds fair.
Another way is, as l said, to throw the
waste matter upon the bare ground.
There have been many plans discussed
for utilizing this method. The best ma
terial on which to dump, our sewage
has been found to be sand. A. soon as
the offal is put upou the ground the
bacteria proceed To make meal OF it.
Sand is wonderful Ill er and is ma
lures own. This method has found
great favor In Great Britain aud has
been adopted in some Massachuse Is
towns. Filtration with sewage musr
however, be intermittent
AS to purifying water there are many
different ways. Tue purest water Is, of
course. distilled water London drinks
the filtered Thames. Filtering means
something more than sIraining. The
common American method is to dig "A
we'll aud then drink It's water, whatever
IL may be, and the AVERAGE man thinks
that 20 one but dude will refuse water
that looks" clear. 1t Is a disgrace TO US
AS intelligent citiz MS that we go on rs
we do. Get pure ater at any cost.
But suppose you cannot get pure wateri
There is AZ least one way out of the
dilemma. 1t is to filter, filter. filter
Filter through sand. il possible. London
has an admlrabl. example of filtration
system aud typhoid fever is COMPARE
tiveiy unknown. "A board is appointed
to see that too great an amount OF sewage
Is not put into the Thames.
Another method is mechanical flltra-
ton. which consists in introducing
coagulating substances TO hasten precip.-
alton. There are certain dangers con-
nected with this method, but there are
also some dangers connected with the
patural method. IL should be seen that
the filters are iu good working order. In
London most careful system Of espion-
age is practiced.
The natural method Of purifying water
has never been surpassed by any me-
chanical means. OF course the purest
water is distilled water, but IL
is a very expensive plan. In
Chicago, Waukesha water will be sup
piled for the benefit of Worlds fair
v sitors. In that city in 1891 there were
$4,000 cases OF typuoid fever insulting
from impure water. We shall never be
entitled Uo call ourselves civilized until
we filter our water.