The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1899-01-26
UNFILTERED WATER.
said to Have Caused over 5000
Deaths In Tbirty-Eive Citics
In ISOo.

II some fierce barbaric horde, like
the Goths and Nandals of old, were in
The habit Of swooping down every year
upon the civilized regions of North
America, killing our people 10y tens OF
thousands and wounding from 10000 tu
100000 more, all for lack of adequate
lefenses, which would cost few beg.
carly millions Of dollars, what howl
Of indignation there would bel How
the press and platform, and even the
pdlpit, would ring with denunciations
of the criminally apathetic authorities
who permitted such an unnecessary
sacritice! Yet would such needless
loss in battle be any more deplorable
or any more criminal than permitting
the death or serious injury annually of
the same number of people by the
many diseases which we now know to
be preventable? A rough calculation,
based upon statistics given in a new
book by John W. Hill, shows that ty-
phoid alone in the year 1896 caused up
ward of 5000 deaths in 30 American
and Canadian cities, saying nothing of
the deaths from the same cause In the
smaller towns and country places. For
every fatal case there were at least
four that recovered, which would make
10000 condemned to long and trying
illness, with perssting i'll health in
many of them, and there must, in fact,
have been considerably larger pro-
portion of recoveries under cur inn
proved modern methods of treatment.
But the striking--one might even say
startling-fact demonstrated by Mr.
Hills book is that the death rate from
typhoid fever, instead of ranging from
30 to Ga in each 100000 of population,
as it did in Philadelphia from 1890 to
1896, or from 81 TO 100 in each 100000
as in Chicago during the same period,
need not be over or in the 100000, If
only our municipalities could be gov
erned on business principles, with the
help of the best sanitary science.
The proof is to be found in the effects
of thorough system of sand filtration
of public water supplies in number of
European cities. For instance, in lier-
lin the mortality from typhoid has, by
such filtration, been so reduced that in
each of the years 1895 and 1896 il was
5, while in 1894 it was only 4, IN every
100000 of the population. In Amster-
dam the rate was 10 in 1890, and came
down to in 1896. In Hamburg the pro
! portion was 2s in the 100000 in 1890
but an epidemic of cholera compelled
the institution of radical measures foi
the puriflcat!on of the polluted Elb,
water (Which, however, as the typhoid
death rate shows, was not half as filthy
as the Schuylkill river water furnished
to Philadelphia), and, in consequence
the typhoid rate in 1896 had fallen TO
in the 100000.
But lest the thrifty governing bodies
of those American cities whose inbah
itants are still obliged to drink diluted
sewage should use these figures in sup
port of the adoption of some one of th'
various mechanical filters which ar,
being actively exploited in this coun
try, Il is proper to add few more sta
tistics. In Atlanta, Ga, the typhoi'
death rate was ISL in 1890, and. in spit
of the operation of a mechanical filter
had not been reduced lower than 80 /,
1896. In Chattanooga, Tenn, the rat
was 145 in 1890, and. with the help OF
mechanical filter, came down to 60 II
1S96-to rate just Is times highe
than it should be under proper santa
tion.-lnternational Medical Magazine