The weekly intelligencer., 1897-08-07
SANITARY PROBLEMS
AGAINsTTHE USE OF WE'LL WATER

AGAINST THE USE OF WE'LL WATER
In Cities and Villages 1ohere the soil as
used to Dispose of Human Dejecto
from Vaults or Cess Pools.
Extracts from Reports of
PROF. VICTOR c. VAUGHN,
See Appleton's Cyclopedia, Vol. xii, pa ge
100.
PROF. w. P. MASON,
OF RENSSELAER, Polytechnic Inst, Troy,
! N. Y.
DIR. G. o. PRoBsT,
Sec. Ohio State Board of Health and
others.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT HETEROGENEOUS
COMMUNITY, U. s. A.
Considerable responsibility rests upon
public officials, such as members of Board
of Health and Council, of the different
cities aud villages, but material evidence
is much oftener greater to these boards
than their knowledge OF sanitary prin-
ciples.
Everybody seems to be talking or writ
ing about water, but the public is very far
from being well posted upon the subject,
and one encounters all sorts OF odd views,
which are remarkable, not only for their
character, but also for the tenacity with
which they are held.
Ocular evidence of purity is quite suffi-
cient for most people. The bright and
limpid water from a well which drains a
graveyard, cess pool or privy vault Is
counted a blessing by many who would
shudder at the thought OF a cholera ship
touching at one of our most distant ports.
Beyond preadventure, it is dangerous
to allow human refuse material to be dis
posed of in q vault, unless such vault is
carefully sealed with cement to prevent
the pollution OF the soil in the neighbor-
hood of an open or driven we'll.
Human dejecta are often disposed of by
deposit in the vault or cess pool, and the
purifying power of the earth is depended
upon to prevent pollution of the family
we'll.
Those who are acquainted with the
unwise location and the filthy condition
of many of the city or village privies must
appreciate that the distance from them to
q family we'll is often short, many of them
not exceeding fifty feet, few not exceed
ing one hundred feet, and the intervening
soil is required to dispose of an amount OF
fifth greatly in excess of its powers, and
that, too, by q process which must be
essentially q continuous rather than an
intermittent form of liberation.
That organic pollution OF the soil ia not
disposed of within short distances, as has
been definitely proven by Prof. Victor Q.
Vaughn. who says:
eI dug down q foot behind q privy vault
and lookup some soil three feet below the
surface, to determine the amount of
organic matter in it.; then went off six
feet and did the same thing; then twelve,
then eighteen, then twenty-four, then
thirty, then fifty; and, without going into
detail, suffice it to say that the contami-
nation of the soil from that single privy
vault, built upon nearly level ground,
could be detected fifty feet from the vault
plainly"
DIR. Q. o. Probst, Secretary Ohio State
Board of Health, says:
Sin cities and villages, where no care is
taken to prevent soil pollution, where
uncemented privy vaults are in general
use, wells become an unsafe source of
supply are not to be recommended. .
Where people are dependent upon we'll for
their drinking water, it is questionable
whether it is not more dangerous to
health to dispose of such filthy substance
under ground by the cess pool method
than by turning it into the street."
A few years ago, there was an outbreak
of typhoid fever in Quincy, Illinois, and
an investigation was ordered by the City
Board of Health. The report of the inves-
tigation was as follows:
SIT is bit peculiar that in seventeen of
the nineteen cases of typhoid fever, the
source of water supply was from wells or
cisterns. This either speaks we'll for the
hydrant water, or is an excellent argu- |
ment against well and cistern water. The
record for the year, ending April 1, 1897,
for the city of Quincy, Illinois, from
typhoid fever was eleven deaths; of this
number of fatal cases, only one was living |
on premises Supplied with hydrant water,
which is certainly a very strong argument
in its favor"
To 60 back few years, there is found a
very noteworthy case of contamination
under just such circumstances, recorded
in the history of the cholera epidemic at /
Messina, Italy, in 1887. The plague lasted
from September 10 to October %, during |
which time there were some 5000 cases of |
cholera and 1000 deaths. Although for a
time the number of daily cases was exces- |
sive, running as high as 400, the ordinary |
number was about 20. The population was
stampsded, falling from 1000 to about
1900. The government felt that a very |
plausible cause for the rapid spread lay in
drinking water, and acting |
upon its conviction as to the cause of the
great mortality, the government sent tank
ships to the mainland, filled them with /
pure ''serino" water, supplied the people
Herewith, and the daily number of
cholera cases Immediately fell from 20 to
5; or, to quote the expression at the time,
'.the plague ceased as II by magic" 2t