St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-08-10
OUR VILLAGE WATER SYSTEM.

The monthly meeting of the Board
of Trade was held on Monday eve-
ming and the subject for discussion
was our village water system. Pre-
vious to the discussion of the subject
the committee on real estate re-
ported that it had organized by
electing |. H. Frost, chairman, and
W. II. Preston, secretary. The COM
mittee on transportation reported
that the Boston & Maine had dis
counted Sc on their freight bill for
the granite for the park at the head
of Hastings hill. A vote of thanks
was extended to the railroad for
their courtesy in this matter.
E. E. Sargent thought injured the
towns reputation to have the Board
Of Trade and the newspapers contin-
ually discussing our water supply.
H. K. Ide thought our village wa
ter system was all right except that
a reservoir was needed. He had
recommended this 10 years ago when
he was superintendent of the water
works and noticed this was recon-
mended in the last trustees report.
O.S. Abbott said the filter did all
it was guaranteed to do-to clear the
water from foreign matter. 1t would
not rid the water of microbes, but it
gave the quantity and quality of
water that were guaranteed by its
makers.
The principal speech of the evening
was by DR.. Bullard, who has spent
great deal of time the past few
months in studying the causes of the
typhoid fever epidemic
DR.. Bullard said for over a year he
had received report of every case Of
typhoid fever in town. He had also
interviewed every doctorin in town and
he did not believe that the reports
had been exaggerated. Until June,
1892, he believed the Passumpsic
river was as pure as any spring in
the state. But the river got polluted
and nobody can tell how long before
it will be purified. Lyndon or St.
Johnsbury Centre might pollute the
river, not to mention the sources oil
possible pollution in Paddock village
Since the citizens began to boil water
and to take precautionary measures
it has reduced typhoid fever from 19
cases in June to only three in July.
Statistics show that "a per cent ol
all the typhoid fever cases came from
drinking the village water, that four
cases were from spring water and
that the other cases could be traced
to drinking village water away from
their own homes. DR.. Bullard said
New York city was experimenting
with purifying water by electricity
but that this process was still in an
experimental stage. He also had the
word of prominent chemist that
the Pasteur filters would not destroy
microbes. He believed the only safe
way was to boil the water intended
for drinking purposes. In response
to inquiries DR.. Bullard stated just
how he believed that the Passumpsie
river had become charged with ty
phoid microbes and gave brief de
scription of the habits of these mi
croscopic germs.
w. H. Preston said the sewage
of Lyndonville and st. Johnsbury
Centre emptied into the Passumpsie
and that typhoid fever had been re
ported at Lyndonville last year. He
found that great many people were
boiling their drinking water or els'
procuring spring water.
President Smith announced thai
this subject would be discussed al
3 the September meeting, after which
the meeting adjourned.