Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-30
The Case Against City Pumps Stated
by a Physician.
EXPERIENCES OF OTHER COMMUNITIES
Constant Danger Of Contamination
From Polluted Soil.
THE DUTY OF THE PEOPLE

trict, which, after careful consideration of
the matter in connection with the mortality
from typhoid fever. urgently recommended
that wells and pumps in the city be closed
and abandoned as rapidly as feasible, stands
In the attitude OF complainant. There has
been much protest against the action of the
authorities taken in consequence of the re-
pert of the Medical Society. A prominent
member of that society has prepared the
following statement concerning wells in the
city:
The agitation of the public mind on the
subject OF the abolition OF the wells is
natural ore, and 1t is not surprising that
there should be a good deal of opposition to
the measure. Indeed. the people of Wash
ington have a right to know why they are
deprived OF the liberty OF drinking water
which they have been in the habit OF drink
ing for years, and which, in hot weather has
been about the only comfort in life. The
people have the right to ask why is this great
outcry against the beautiful clear water of
the pumps. when the Potomac water, SO
hlled with impurities, is allowed to enter
tfeir houses and to be used Unfortunately.
1T Is not to be supposed that the public
she uld be fully acquainted with the grounds
urcn which the suggestion of the Medical
Society was based; and 1t is to answer the
natural request for information that the fol-
lowing remarks are written:
Typhoid fever is propagated, to a great
extent, by the drinking OF water made i'm
pure by the peculiar poison OF typhoid fever.
IT Is not thought that ordinary impurities,
such as clay. sand, animal and vegetable
matter iE general can produce II, but that
the poison contained in the excreta of pa
tients suffering from the disease must get
Into the water before II can be a vehicle
Tor dissemination. 1t makes no difference
whether the water is river water, spring
water or well water. whether the river is
large or small, the well shallow or deep; IL
the poison OF typhoid obtains entrance into
water used for drinking purposes, the dis
ease may be. and often is, generated in
those who drink It, very small quantity
OF the poison may render the water of a
whole river dangerous.
In the epidemic at Plymouth, Pa, in
1885, out OF $500 population. LOO persons
contracted typhoid fever, and nearly 100
died from drinking the water of q mountain
stream. which had been infected by the
discharges from single patient affected
with typhoid fever, and living miles away
from the town.
There is no doubt OF the fact that
typhoid fever can be propagated by the
drinking of contaminated river water and
the Medical Society has urged in its report
the publication OF the Potomac water by
every means possible TO modern engineering
science.
Wells in POpulOus Cities.
The water of wells which is In the soil
beneath the streets and houses of a popu-
lous city is very liable to contamination
with the typhoid fever poison. This danger
bears a relation to the method of disposng
of the excreta. II the city is severed and
II all the waste and filth are carried i'm
mediately from the houses through well
laid sewer pipes far away from the city's
limits no danger can result. IL. on the con-
trary, waste. especially that which con-
tafns the poison of typhoid fever is thrown
directly on the soil or into leaking boxes
then the soil of the city becomes sooner
or later saturated with such deleterious
matters. Once in the soil the soakage of
matter Is always In the direction of wells
the occurrence of rains favors this result
In time the we'll water Is contaminated and
| if taken into the human system disease Will
result. All persons who drink infected
water do not have typhoid fever, for all who
are exposed to any contagious disease do not
contract il, but there few families in
Washington in which there have not been
one or more cases of typhoid fever.
We can purify the river water by sedi-
mentation and filtration and render IL al
most harmless, but what can be done with
well water? We cannot purify IL by any
known means, and II IL Is true that well
water does become contaminated with ty-
phoid poison that the drinking of 1t pro-
duces the disease. there is no alternative
but to abolish the wells absolutely. Sup
pose that the Potomac water produced
tnree-fourths or even larger proportion
of the cases of typhoid fever in Washing
ton, and that small fraction only Of the
cases could be traced to the drinking of
infected well water. shall We permit this
small fraction of our population, year after
year. to sicken and die from this disease
when we have the means at hand at once to
protect them from illness? The Medical
Society expressed the well founded belief
that a very large number of cases were
due TO the drinking of pump water, but IL
is not a matter of Importance as to how
many die from one cause or the other 1t
is our duty so cut of every possible source
by which SO fatal disease is spread among
our population.
! The Cnse Against the Wells.
But the question may be asked: What
is the ground of your belief that typhoid
! fever is disseminated by the drinking of
| we'll water? What proof have you of this
| and where both Potomac water and pump
! water are used. how can you decide that 1t
| is! one and. mot the other? In large city
| like this of course. il is difficult to prove
! in individual cases which water has orig
! mated the disease: ii is only by experience
/ and observa ton outside OF cities that We
| arrive at the positive knowledge that in
| fected well water Is at fault. In small vii
llases and country districts. especially in
/ England, this matter has been studied thor
/ oughly for great many years, and We
| have now in our possession an immense
number of facts which prove. beyond
/ doubt, the danger which lies in the water
/ supply of wells. No one with any knowl-
edge of what Is so well known at the pres
| ent day would venture to doubt the truth
| of the statement that all wells in a city,
| especially in one not completely severed
| are constant menace to health.
THE following examples are given among
/ a great many of the same sort to show the
kind of evidence upon which the opinions
/ expressed by the Medical Society are based,
/ and the grounds for the suggestions made
| in it's report.
| IN 1876 there was a severe outbreak of
| typhoid fever in Rochester, N Y 1t was
! found that forty families in the infected
! nelghborhood drank water from a pump
| at the corner of Hunter and Reynolds
| streets Twenty-three cases occurred in
these households, whereas In forty-seyen
! families In the same neighborhood using a
different water there were only two cases.
| The water was perfectly clear and beauti-
| ful but was liable to contaminatio by
/ bitches carrying sewage.
THE well was closed and the epidemic
stopped. tReport of board of health of city
of Rochester; and New York Medical Jour
nal, January. 1879
| The following is most striking and in
| terestipg illustrations: In November 1853
| two balls were given on alternate nights at
! a hotel in Cambridge, in Wales. One hun
| dred and forty persons from different places
/ were present at these balls. Almost i'm
| mediately after they had returned to their
/ homes many of them sickened with typhoid
I FEVER; finally fifty of the 40 became ILL and
| of these seven died. There was no typhoid
fever in the town at the time, and the dis
ease did not spread there. After careful in
vestigation the only possible source Of the
origin Of the epidemic was thought to be