Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-16
DR.. Stones Observations on Wash
ington's Suburbs.
Cow TEE WATER is CONTAMINATED
Perfect Sewerage Needed to Pro-
vide immunity From Disease.
AN INTERESTING TALK

the prevalence of typhoid fever in the
suburbs of Washington and the use of pol
luted well and spring water. In season and
out, he has labored for the lettering of
the sanitary conditions of the suburbs, and
this fall he is more than ever convinced of
the necessity for action by the authorities
which will remove the danger of contami-
nation from the residents of the beautiful
and otherwise healthful region surround
ing the city. In a practice extending over
the country lying between Rock creek and
Brookland, the city limits and the District
line and into the adjoining county in Mary
land, he has made extensive observations
in the past twenty-five years, especially in
regard to the history of typhoid fever cases.
"In all my experience" said DR.. Stone to
a Star reporter, Il have found only one or
two exceptions to the rule that the exist
ence of typhoid fever can be traced directly
to the use of polluted water. l held from
the first that this was the source of the
disease in this section, and the fact has
been demonstrated over and over again.
There has been more than the usual
amount of typhoid during the past sum-
mer and this fall, and in every instance 1
have traced the cause directly to the water
supply used by the patients. This will con-
tinue to be the case in a thickly settled
community where there is sewerage
and where the residents are compelled to
use water from springs and from wells
always liable to pollution from a soil con-
taminated by filth and eXcrement. AS the
ground becomes more thoroughly soaked
with animal filth the danger will increase,
and sewers and water works system only
can prevent the existence of typhoid.
How Typhoid is Contracted.
"Of course, it is well-known fact that
the only way to contract that disease is to
take into the human system, through the
mouth and stomach, the bacillus or germ of
typhoid. The most common way of getting
| 1t Is through water used for drinking pur-
poses 1t can be taken into the system in
the use of milk, but comes primarily from
the water: There is. l believe, no instance
of typhoid bacillus being found in milk
drawn directly from the cows udder and
when 1t is discovered in milk it is when the
cans and pans, or the cows bag, have been
washed in water containing the germ
1t Is yet matter Of conjecture how
long the typhoid bacillus maintains its viz
ulence, speculation as to the time ranging
all the way from one month to one year.
1 am convinced myself that cases have oc-
Cured from typhoid bacillus year old. 1
have one recent instance in my mind
where there were nine cases of typhoid
1ever IN one family. l was called in to at
tend the hrst case not long ago, and l re-
| membered that there had been typhoid in
reighbor's family year ago. According
to my custom, l Immediately began to ex-
anime the water supply of the family. 1
they drew their drinking water was fifteen
feet below the surface of cesspools Lot
2oO feet away, one of them a pool where
the excrement from the typhoid patient
mad been thrown a year previous. l was
satisfied that the disease had it's incep-
| ton in the well water, and when the other
members Of the family were taken down
| In quick succession 1 caused bac.eriolog-
| fcal examination to be made of the water,
and it was found to be charged with bac-
terra. Three relatives of the family who
visited them during their sickness and
| drank this same water have been taken
with typhoid since. They use Potomac
water at home. and 1 am convinced they
got the disease from drinking from that
polluted well.
THE excrement from these cases was
thrown into a sink draining into Piney
branch. 1 was recently called 10 attend
four cases of fever in houses near Piney
branch, below this spot. 1 found, rpon ex-
animation, that they were using water
and that spring is nothing but seepage
water from the branch. They We're I'M
doubtedly poisoned by that water. In using
well and spring water in region where
all offal and eXcrement is deposited upon
the surface of the ground, to be absorbed
into the ground, and sooner or later find
its way into the veins Of water per neating
the region, typhoid fever is bound to be
communicated to the people using such
contaminated water when there are cases
of the disease in the neighborhood
Contaminated Water.
There has been some talk of a typhoid
belt out in Maryland, occasioned by a
| number of cases of the fever in the same
neghborhood. My Investigations con-
WINGED me that every case was due to the
contamination of the water used by the
families There were number Of houses
using spring water, and in every instance
the spring. was in the vicinity Of out
the outhouses. There was one house where
several members Of the family were down
with the disease. They Dragged of their
spring as the finest in the neghborhood,
and, indeed, 1t was a magnificent one.
When 1 saw it-for 1 insisted upon exam
lining 1.-THE water was as clear as crystal
| and bubbled up vigorously from the earth.
1t seemed the very essence of purity. But
just above it, and on a slope draining to-
ward the spring, was an clubhouse, ieeking
with filth. When heavy rains came the
spring received the drainage, and one case
Of typhoid fever in the family meant the
who drank the water. A spring may be as
pure as possible one day, and the next,
after a rain has washed the surface Of the
neighboring land be charged with bacilli.
There have been cases of fever in fami-
lies who used deep wells. The principle of
the drainage is the same, and a deep well
can absorb the drainage from the vicinity.
At this time, when the streams are nearly
in the wells, the deeper the well the
greater the area it will drain, and the less
water in it the more concentrated will be
the disease germs that may find their way
into it. No man living in the country or
the suburbs can tell what may be deposit
ed upon his land, in the vicinity of his
| house, and subsequently drain into mis- well.
He cannot exercise control over the neigh
borhood, and the source of the contamina-
ton in his well may be hundreds of feet
away. After season of long drought, like
the present, when the eXcrement collects
| upon the ground from not being washed
away, heavy and continued rains will wash
| it into the natural water supplies. ard 1
expect there will be more cases of typhoid
| fever this winter.
Good Sewerage Needed.
People can take precautions in the way
of boiling the water they drink, in clearing
the land in the vicinity of their wells ard
| springs from outhouses, and draining the
slopes away from the water supplies But
| absolute immunity will never come until the
taxpayerS insist upon having that protec-