The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-11
FILTERS A
NECESSITY
Nuuanu Valley Plant
imperative.
So SAYS DIR, {, B. WOOD
President Of the Board of Health Ad-
dresses the Council of State
On the Subject.

A filtration plant in Nuuanu valley
is imperative. So says DR.. Wood. Pres
ident of the Board of Health. BY spe-
cial invitation, he appeared before the
Council of State yesterday to speak on
the subject.
In his opinion the plan to establish
filtration plant in the valley is not
only feasible but imperative on ac-
count of the increase in deaths from
typhoid fever. He reiterated the state
ments made at the special meeting of
the Board OF Health some weeks ago.
when the subject was given an ex-
haustive treatment by him and pub
lished fully in the Advertiser.
He thought that il the Government
was to furnish the valley water for
use, it ought to filter 1t before allow
ing 1t to be piped into houses. He did
not know whether 1t was economy to
try to pump artesian water to the
higher levels or not. His plea was
that Nuuanu valley water was not
free from contamination, and positive
ly ought not to be used for domestic
purposes in. its natural state.
IL believe" said the doctor, that
some arguments have been present
ed to the Council showing that typhoid
fever has been more prevalent in that
portion of the population Of Honolulu
| which makes use OF artesian water. |
believe that Is true. But that does not
prove that Nuuanu water is good, and
artesian water. bad"
DIR. Wood deplored the lack OF sta
| tistics in regard to typhoid fever cases.
1t has never been reported as a dan
gerous sickness, or even as contagious.
| The largest percentage of deaths has
| occurred in the Queens Hospital and
the Japanese Hospital, but there were
no statistics to show where these
cases originated. He had prepared a
| map for the Board of Health, showing
the deaths from typhoid fever which
occurred in 1899. That map shows
that most OF the cases outside the hos
pitfalls occurred where the artesian wa
ter is furnished. and mostly in China
| town. Here people died where cess
pools existed and the soil was saturat-
ed with bacteria, and they died because
the germs OF the disease entered into
| the system.
At a meeting of physicians a year
| ago 1t was stated as an almost unani-
nous opinion that there was no ty-
!
| own experience up to that time.
II have found statements in my
books" continued the doctor, that an
ordinary healthy American city with
the usual water supply. viii have about
twenty-five deaths from typhoid fever
in each 100000 people. Honolulu Is
away beyond that. In 1899 the total
deaths diagnosed as typhoid fever were
forty-three; other feyers 100. Now
that statement on the face OF IL Is ri
diculousi Typhoid fever Is the most
| fatal of contagious diseases that we
have here. Some call these fever cases
Hawaiian fever These figures ought
to be reversed, and should be to my
mind, 100 typhoid fever deaths and
forty-three from other fevers. That
makes our death rate $50 per 100000.
or about ten times greater than IL is
in almost all European cities. Out of
forty-three post-mortems az the pest
house from February 3 to March 81,
eleven were typhoid fever cases. 'Ha-
waiian fever is a term manufactured
in Honolulu, and is not on the books.
1t is used mostly by the Japanese ply
sicians. ] asked one of them what he
meant by the term. He said the ordi-
nary fever which occurred in Honolu-
lu. / asked whether II was typhoid or
malarial fever. To this he answered
oh. sometimes one and sometimes the
other In the Japanese Hospital
twenty deaths were put down 20 'Ha-
waiian fever and only two to typhoid
Il don't want to prove that all this
is due TO the fact that Nuuanu waite
is not filtered, but | do believe that d
the Nuuanu water is not to blame
that it will be soon. 1t Is not good
logic for a little community like this
to set itself against the word. i be
lieve there are two reasons why Nuu-
anu water has not caused typhoid
one is that We have not had 1t lone
enough and the other Is that people
are not yet living above the reservoirs
You cannot always keep people from
living up Nuuanu valley toward the
Pail. You cannot always say that peo-
pie shall not live on the hillsides. Whe1
they do, they are going to pollute th'
hills, and the water will be polluted
with typhoid germs. This will not b