Evening star., 1898-12-12
INFILTERED WATER.
Caused Over 5000 Deaths in Thirty.
Five Cities in 1896.
Ernrn Internal tinnal Medical MAGAZINE.


II some fierce barbaric horde, like the
Goths and Vandals of old, We're In the habit
OF swooping down every year upon the civil
lized regions of North America killing our
people by tens of thousands and wounding
from 10000 to 100.O0 more, all for lack of
adequate defenses. which would cost a few
beggarly millions of dollars what a howl OF
Indignation there would be! How the press
and platform, and even the pulpit, would
ring with denunciations OF the crminally
apathetlc authorities who permitted such
an unnecessary sacrifice. Yet would such
a needless loss In battle be any more de-
plorable or any more criminal than permit
ting the death or serious injury annually of
the same number of people by the many
diseases which we now know to be prevent
able? A rough calculation, based upon
statistics given in new book by John w.
Hill, shows that typhoid alone in the year
1886 caused upward of 5000 deaths in thir-
ty-five American and Canadian cities, say
ing nothing of the deaths from the same
cause in the smaller towns and country
places. For every fatal case there We're at
least four that recovered, which would
make 1000 condemned to long and try
ing illness, with persisting i'll health in
many of them, and there must in fact.
have been a considerably larger proportion
of recoveries under our improved modern
methods of treatment.
But the striking-one might even say
startling-fact demonstrated by Mr.. Hill's
book is that the death rate from typhoid
fever instead Of ranging from 81 to ca in
each 100000 of population, as it did in
Philadelphia from 1890 to 1886 or from 81
to 160 in each 100, 900 as in Chicago during
the same period, need not be over or ) in
the 100, 900, If only our municipalities could
be governed on business principles with
the help of the best sanitary science.
The proof is to be found in the effects of
a thorough system of sand filtration of pub
lie water supplies in a number of European
cities For instance, in Berlin the mortal
fty from typhoid has, by such filtration
been SO reduced that in each of the years
1895 and 1896 it was s. while in 1894 it was
only 4, in every 900 of the population.
In Amsterdam the rate was 10 in 1890, and
came down to in 1896. In Hamburg the
proportion was 2S in the 100000 in 1890. but
an epidemic of chbIera compelled the insti-
tuition of radical measures for the purifca-
ton of the polluted Elbe water (Which,
however, as the typhoid death rate shows
was not half as filthy as the SchuylkfII
river water furnished to Philadelphia, and.
in consequences. the typhoid rate in tSgi
had fallen to in the 1000
But lest the thrifty governing bodies of
those American cities whose inhabitants
are still obliged to drink diluted sewage
should use these figures in support of the
adoption of some one of the various me-
chanical filters which are being actively ex-
plotted in this country. it is proper to add a
few more statistics. lin Atlanta. Ga. The
typhoid death rate was 151 in 1890, and. i'm
spite of the operation or mechanical filter
had not been reduced lower than 80 in 1896
In Chattanooga Tenn, the rate was 145 in
1890, and, with the help of a mechanical
filter, came down to 60 in 1S96-to a rafe
just fifteen times higher than it should he
under proper sanitation.