The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-04-10
WATER IMPURITIES.
THE ADTANCE CLUE REPEATS ITS
CRITICISMS AGAINST THEM.
And Adduces Former Reports of Com
mittees to show that the Club Does
Not Exaggerate.

condition or the PawtuXet river wa er.
Chairman Miller of the COMMITTEES.
after reviewing the course OF the club
its recommendatio IS and criticisms very
cleverly pointed out by quotations from
the report OF special committee headed
by Walter IL. Barney, which sa,d as re-
Gently as last January that bacteria
and other micro-orgauisms, the results or
accompaniments OF the decomposition
of vegetable or animal matter and par
ticularly OF sewage empiied into The
stream, in large proportion or harm-
less nature, are also liable Include the
dreaded baciili of typhoid. diphtheria.
cholera and other germ produced dis
eases"
The same committee also reported 1.-THE
greatest source OF danger is from the in.
production OF disease germs nv the All
mission of sewage into the stream by the
natural or artificial drainage along its
banks"
Aud they cay, futher: "The safest
course would be TO take the water before
it Is polluted. rather than TO trust TO any
means, however efficient, for the re-
moval of the pollution"
"This." said Mr.. Miller sis exactly
what the report of your committee
recommends-only this and nothing
more--and yet how has your unauthor-
lied report stirred up these very good
city fathers :"
Continuing the executive committee
say:
All agree that something must be done,
but the sole aim at present appeirs 10 Do
the protection, the preservation ana per-
petuation OF the pumping station.
In the meantime the population OF tne
Pawtuxet Valley increases, ana with IL
the sources OF pollution and the dangers
TO the city or Providence. Land bee jmes
more valuable, and what can now be
done at a cost within the ability of the
city TO meet will soon become Impossible
by the increase of land values.
Only yesterday the country was In n
ferment about ma 'ional quarantine. But
il the existin, European cholera wave
is shortly TO sweep westward over our
shores IL may b. impossible TO keep the
plague wholly out OF the country, and
ther, perhaps too late, 1T will be seea
that the publication of our water supply
is even more important matter than
quarantine itself.
In all the great tragic epidemics of
cholera the paramount importance Of an
uncontaminated water supply has beea
demonstrated. The eminent saniJariau.
Simon, in analyzing the diffusion ana
mortality of the disease during the Lon
don epidemic Of 1854 pointed out that in
two adjoining district, supple by dill
ferent water compa lles, the death rate
vas 81 to every 10000 persons in one dis
trict, while in tue other IL was l3O 10
every 10000. His conclusion was:
1.-The population drinking dirty water
accordingly appears To have suffered
three times as much mortality as the
population drinking other water"
Other equally striking proofs might be
cited Of the immense role played by inn
pure water in the diffusion OF the Asiatic
plague.
While water freely flowing may under
go certain degree of seli-purification
(by which most organic or disease-pro-
uucing matters held in solution lose
something of their viruleuce), water /,
the nursery of the deadly .cnolera- spiriila.
A few hours OF thorough dryiug destroys
the germs. But IL is now well know n
that wren discharged from the bodies oil
cholera patients, AS they always are in
vast mum bers. they remain alive and
multiply in water for long periods ol
time.
When the wave of cholera from the
shores Of the Meditt IRA eau surg d over
Spain ia 1885, id was DIR twing its
main supply OF drinking water from the
River l. Zoya, rising in the Xranite rocks
of The Guadarrtma mountains and flow
ing through an uninhabitei country az
least as far as the intake of the Madrid
ater works. The condults fro.h tn: ia.
take to the city we're watched night and
of the Spanish epiue nc. The conse
uuence was that in Madrid ptop.e sui
frred but lit lie. But Granada, supplied
by the canals derived from the Rivers
Genil and DJuro, which were subjecS To
contamination, was almost deciinated,
losing by cholera nearly one-tenth OF i.s
total population.
Pet ettaconset pumping station will neces.
state the erection of additional pumpin.
plants and will thereby greatly increase
the cost of this. from the beginning a
most serious aud costly mistake.
When first constructed the necessity oI
filtration was appreciated and a costly
but unsuccessful Experiment was made
and then abandoned. AttDa tlme science
had not disclosed the impossibility OF re-
moving disease germ, and the dreaded
bacilli of typhoid a ID cholera were then
unknown.
To erect, now, costly filtering plants.
with the knowledge of their uselessness 5
as safeguard against the spread OF
cholera-and also Co erect the necessary
additional aud costly pumping plants
adding by folly To the previous errors.
On the south branch OF tue Pawtuxet
river we have an ample water supply-on
that branch are mills containing not
over two hundred thousand Goo, ,000) spin
dles-the average value is not over twelve
dollars (Sl2) per spindle.
Shall his city perish Shall death In
its worst form decimate aud DESTROY even
one thousand OF the lives OF this city OF
one hundred and fifty thousand U5O.OOO
people, that these mills may have "A little
more " water--water that they now do not
use-neyer have used-and for the want
of which the dearest Que OF each oil our
families may perish Mol IA thousand
times mol
The people of the city of Providence
arr ready to pay for all the water they
require-they are able to pay every, even
the slightest damage they really ana
actually do to any one who may suffer
loss by their use of natures free gift
pure water.
The Advance club Is composed of citi-
zens, not OF professional politicians-they
ask ioronly one favor-sney desire o nIy
one privilege-Go serve their fellow IN an
aud benefit the city of their homes.