The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-08

patrol of the water sheds in necessary
to discover the sources OF danger
Since the days of the modern steam
saw mill, a loggers' camp Is often loca-
ted and built up in a single night, and
usually very close to the bank of the
stream, so that the water can be easi-
ly secured for steam and other pur-
poses. I have recently had case on
the watersheds of the work under my
care, where a camp of sixteen men and
six horses was located and settled in
one day on the stream emptying into
our distributing reservoir and within
eight hundred feet Of the head of the
reservoir. / CHANGED to discover them
within twenty-four hours after their To-
cation and Immediately sent men to dig
pits for privies and to keep a watch
over the men to see that the pits were
( used.
/ I am not sure that there is any law
which would prohibit people from
dropping their faces promiscuously in
the woods and on the border of
streams If on their own land and I
concluded that the labor for caring for
the necessary sanitary arrangements
would be cheaper than the lawyers and
! courts.
With the exception of pollution of a
temporary nature an dby transient res
idents, there are within the watersheds
of two and one-half square miles trib-
utary to our Sou Ellington reservoir, but
two houses which drain into our water
supply. These are distant about eight
hundred feet from the brooks feeding
into A.
houses we dig pits and bury the CON
tents of the privies twice year
We are doubtless all familiar with
the history of the typhoid fever cpl
demic at Plymouth. Penn, which was
easily traced to one case of typhoid ON
the shed Of the water supply for the
town, where, in a town of eight thou
sand people, there occurred twelve hun
dred cases Of typhoid traceable to this
single case.
The outbreak of typhoid fever at
Windsor, VT, about 1894, also at Prov
idence. r. L., in 1888 and a Caterham,
England, in 1879, were traced to single
cases of fever containing an entire wa
ter supply
There are but very few water supplies
Ill ILLS oldlt WHICH SdtIieE the water
from sheds which are unpolluted, or in
which there are no houses or camps 80
that every supply needs to be looked af-
ter, and every health officer should be
at once informed of any cases of ty-
phoid, not only in his own town. but in
the adjoining towns, If within the
trainage area of his water supply, and
in the event Of a general outbreak or Of
single case of fever, he should visit
the place and ascertain what DISPOSE
ton is made Of the OBJECTIONS of the
patients. The safest way is to either
burn them or bury them deep in the
earth
One of the greatest dangers to wa
ter supply is the repairing or adding to
an existing supply by the building of
new reservoirs and dams, particularly
If the new dam is above the old one on
the same stream. If often happens
that the force employed to construct q
new reservoir equals the population of |
a small town, and they are planted |
by a contractor on the water |
shed with no sanitary conveniences and !
no provisions In the contract for pro !
tecting the watersheds from pollution. 1,
In such cases the health officer cannot |
be too early on the ground.
In my judgment 1t is not safe to allow
the use of grounds surrounding any
public water supply for fishing, boat
ing or any other purposes of entertain
nent, and every possible source of con-
tamination should be excluded. as to
he exclusion of cows, horses and sheen
rom pasturage on water sheds tributa-
y to public water supplies, l do not
know that it has ever been shown that
heir droppings will cause any particu-
ar disease; their presence, however, is
offensive to the senss and tnds to Gre
lite a prejudice in the minds of the
consumers against the water and it is
afer to exclude cattle from pastrraee
n close proximity to reservoirs and for
he same reason fertilizer should not he
lsed.
Water sheds and reservoirs should he
inspected personally, not only by the
of water works. but I
Ilso by the town and city health Off
ers of the towns and cities where the
waters We're used. Even if the laws are