The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-03
DR. J. W. HODGE OPPOSES VACCINA- TON OF WATER WITH SUCH R. RITANT P0ISONS AS HYPOCHLO- RIDE OF LIME
Niagara Practitioner Exposes Dangers of "Doped' Water, and Says Filtration is Best Means of Purifying Sewage Con- taminated Water Supply

The Bridgeport Hydraulic Company having announced that 1t will treat its water(with hypochlor:de of lime. the eviews expressed by pr. J. W. Hodge of Niagara, upon this subject will be of interest.
 4 company that supplies Niagara, N r., with water has been using this treatment to reduce impurities. Dr. Hodge was asked by the~ editor of the Cataract Journal to give his views upon the, safety of this vaccination of the water.
 Dr. Hodge in his response, declares that the adulteration of water with hypOchloride of lime is dangerous in the extreme, and condemns it in un- measured terms. declaring it mere device to escape filtration of the wa ter 1t says that the products re- leased into the water are powerful ir- ritant poisons. and must be, inasmuch as they kill bacteria. He denies that babies have more vitality than bac- teria- Says Dr. Hodge:
 In compliance with your request for an opinion as a physician upon the matter of "doctoring' the water supply of this city, I submit the fol- low considerations. After stream of water has been polluted with the sewage and excrementitious filth from human habitations and .therebT bes come infected with the clement of disease 1t is permanently unfit for human consumption either as a bev- craze or for culinary purposes Of all the deleterfous substances which make their. way into drinking water, the most dangerous to human health and life are the excrementitious sub- stances derived from human habita- tions.
 Of late the Western New York Water Company has been experim ent- ing upon the water supply by adding thereto a highly irritating and pois- onous substance. commonly known as bleaching powder" under the plea of clarifying the water and killing the so-called "disease germs" there. in. One of the results of the experi- ment has been that an offensive odor and a disagreeable and nauseating taste have been imparted to the wa- ter without any compensating good effect having resulted.
 We now have a mal-odor and an offensive taste added to our sewage laden water.
 I submit that it would be far more reasonable Pn the part of said water company if they would try proper pended filth from our water supply, instead of adding poisonous chelni- calls to our f1lth-laden water. The presence of Buffalo sewage in drink ing water Is surely bad enough with out the addition of the deadly and malederods chlorine gas.
 The manager of the Western New York Water Co. tells us that they are adding 1-14 of a grain of hypo- chloride of lime to each gallon of city water.
 What assurance have we that Ia r1fi nf irrr tant poison are not being added 70 our water? The. answer is we do not know, neither does MT. Macbeth knew the exact proportions added for the reason that the water company has no proper appliance for the ac- curate distribution of the poisonous 'germ-killer" in the city water. The primitive, crude and imperfect ap- paratus in use by the company for adding the "bleaching powder to the water is incapable of giving anything like accurate results. The fact that small vessel, filled with water drawn from a tap, and placed upon a hot stove will fill a kitchen with the pungent odor of chlorine gas in a strong indication that the impreg- mated water contains far more than 1-14 of a grain of the added chemi- cal to the gallon. When told by\Mr. J. H. Macbeth, manager of the West ern New York Water Company, that the mal-odor and bad taste of tn, water are due to the fact that his company are adding 2,000 pounds of bleaching powder" to the city water every 24 hours for the purpose of clarifying the fluid and killing the germs.
 Mir. Macbeth having no recognized standing in this community as citizens to accept his unsupported dicta in reference 10 matter of such vital importance to the health of their children and themselves.
 What does MT. Macbeth know about the comparative vitalities of bacteria and babies? Why does this man presume to answer "off-hand" a question which only an experi- enced pathologist is competent to properly answer? Will MT. Macbeth kindly give us reply to these perti- nent questions?
 His "off-hand assertion about the comparative vitalities of bacteria and babies is mere verbal vaporing which should not be taken seriously. Bac- tell us that bacteria arg capable of resisting a temperature of far below the freezing point for without losing their vitality. Does Mr.r Macbeth affect to believe that babies have vitality of equal or great CT endurance than this?
 On the contrary, toxicologists tell us that free chlorine is a powerful irritant poison which is highly dele ferious to human health when inn bibed into the human organism or inhaled into the lungs in very min ute quantities. From p. 669 of q late edition of A Manual of Practical Hygiene by Charles Harrington, M. D., of the faculty of Harvard Univer- sfty. I take the following extract
 ssIt is said by Pettenkofer that from one to five parts of chlorine in na mn narts of air are sufficient tn