The weekly intelligencer., 1897-08-14
SANITARY PROBLEMS
AGAINST THE USE OF WE'LL WATER

| AGAINST THE USE OF WE'LL WATEI
In Cities and Villages ,cbere the soil i
used to Dispose of Human Dejectc
from Vdults or Cess Pools.
Extracts from Reports of
PROF. VICTOR G. VAUGHN,
See Appleton's Cyclopedia, Vol. xii. pagt
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 and villages, but material evidence
is much oftener greater to these boards
than their knowledge OF sanitary prin-
ciples.
Every body 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 sufii-
cient for most people. The bright and
limpid water from well which drains a
graveyard, cess pool or privy vault is
counted 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 a 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 well.
Human dejecta are often disI osed of by
deposit in the vault or cess pool, ana the
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
family well is often short, many of them
not exceeding fifty feet, a 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 a process which must be
essentially a continuous rather than an
intermittent form of alteration.
That organic pollution OF the soil is not
disposed of within short distances, as has
been definitely proven by Prof Victor C..
Vaughn, who says:
81 dug down a foot behind 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 twentyfou then
thirty, then fifty; and, without going into
detail, suffice it to say that the contami-
nation of the soil from that single privy
could be detected fifty feet from the vault
plainly"
DIR. q. o. Probst, Secretary Ohio State
Board of Health, says:
"ln cities aud villages, where no care is
taken to prevent soil pollution, where
uncemented privy vaults are in general
use, welIs 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-
tigatior was as followsI
cit is a bit peculiar that in seventeen OF
the nineteen cases of typhoid fever, the
source OF water supply was from wells or
oisterns. This either speaks well for the
hydrant water, or is an excellent argu-
ment against we'll and cistern water. The
record for the year, ending April l, 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 it's favor"
To go back few years, there is found
very noteworthy case of contamination
nnder just such circumstances, recorded
in the history of the cholera epidemic at
Nessina, Italy, in 1887. The plague lasted
rom September 10 to October 25. during
which time there were some 5000 cases OF
cholera and 1000 deaths. Although for
line the number of daily cases was excess
live, running as high as 400, the ordinary
1umber was about TO- The population was
falling from II 900 to about
$3.50. The government felt that a very |
cause for the rapid spread lay in |
ontami mated drinking water, and acting |
ipon its conviction as to the cause OF the |
,reat mortality, the government sent tank |
hips to the mainland, filled them with |
'ure "serino" water, supplied the people
herewith, and the daily number OF
holera cases Immediately fell from 20 to
I; or, to quote the expression at the time,
the plague ceased as if by magic" 2t