The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-08-22
3.,,,T,,-5 Tgl,;1b fIev VII Alter their water.


through which they VIII iker Their water.
This is what is known as the driven
wellv system, differing from the old Aus
tin Water, Light and Power company in
that the latter uses canal in place of
The pipe.
DR.. Oliver Wendell Holmes is better
known as the author of various works,
notably the ''Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table than he Is as a medical and SAM
tary writer and lecturer. but DR.. Holmes
! was 10 less renowned as a writer on med
ical and sanitary subjects. In one Of
these essays DR.. Holmes says: Before
the means which nature and art have
put in the hands Of the medical practition-
er can be brought fairly TO use, the preju-
dices Of the vulgar must be overcome and
the inrrusions of false philosophy must be
fenced out" He says that the reading
and thinking public have just arrived
at the point where the healthfulneSs or
unhealthfulness of the water supply is
fairly understood. We have learned that
ice in its freezing process may nurse a
microbe in its solidest cube found diSport-
ing itself when it melts. He says as far
as we know not many kinds of bacteria
are carried by water. Typhoid bacillus
was one. and cholera bacillus another;
both would live well in pure distilled
water. but if introduced into river water
in few hours both would be destroyed,
which proved that the ordinary bacillus
of fresh water produced a poison that
killed the bacillus. This, Dr. Holmes
said. shows THAT river water is safer and
healthier than very pure lake or spring
water.
In regard to fltering he says:
1T appeared that the great filter beds
of the large water companies for tilterng
the water of THE Thames did not act, as
was supposed, as mechanical filters. In
these filter beds there we're several feet
| lin rhickneSs) of sand; and, when the wa
ter went through the bacteria would -four
ish in the upper layer of sand and form
ielEy which gave immensely increased
efficiency to the filter. The water has
not got merely to traverse the fine spaces
in the sand, but to 20 Through the jelly
where it left the bacteria behind 1t, as
there was no possibility of carrying solid
particles with it,"
DR.. Holmes is an icOnOclast as far as
small filters are concerned and knocks
the system of small filters that has been
so generally adopted in this city into
smtherenes. He add:
$50 much for the great filters. For the
| little ones, the common domestic hitter, ne
| pronounced his verdict. In neary every
domestic filter examined the filter, instead
! of being means of stopping bacteria, was
a means of communicating them to the
| water. A filter which had been in use for
a week was thoroughly charged with bac-
tcrio, Domestic filtering, which depended
upon continuous use of the same fItering
material. was no good. If the material
used was sterlized it would be good for
twenty-four hours. If not repeatedly ster-
iizcd it was no good at all. This was
very curious result and might be disap-
pointing. but these filters had certainly
added hundred fold to the bacteria OF the
water The only cheerful fact in this con-
nection was that the typhoid organism
would not pass through such filter; it
was killed by the other organisms pres
emit
1t seems from this that the SMALL filters
in use in this city, while protecting us
from typhoid organism by the existence
in it of an opposing army of bacteria, we
encoun. er the dangers of that army of bac-
terra in other forms of disease. 1t teaches
us one good lesson at least, and that is
that the fltering material should be ster-
ilized every twenty-four hours He con-
cludes by saying:
"ThuS once more the step gained in civil
iZation is, after all, to be retraced. The
modern filter not only does not filter, but
does produce disease, and it is plain that
the pubic filter, we'll managed, is of more
service to the body polite than any indi-
vidual patent is ever likely to be. In the
meantime the only conclusion that the lay
nearer may safely adopt is that water had
better be clean, praising heaven, as he
drinks, that ut least his eyes are spared the
war of the baclla as they go down."