The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-08-18

They make an effort to clear this pumpwell.
Perhaps they succeed and perhaps they do
not The point is that the expenditure of
little money would protect the pumping sta
ton from inundation
New York state has the same tale of pollu-
ton to tell. Albany, Cohoes, Dunkirk, Lock
port, Niagara Falls, Ogdensburg, Oswego,
Tonawanda, Watervliet, and other cities drink
river water that is grossly polluted by the
sewage of cities farther upstream. And have
seen dozens OF photographs or filthy cow-sheds
and barns, the drainage from which polluted
the watershed for New York City.
IN Illinois fifteen towns north Of Chicago
empty sewage into Lake Michigan, and nine
OF them draw their drinking water back from
the lake. And what is true of Pennsylvania,
and New York, and Illinois, is a'Go true of
other states. Particularly is st true of the
south. From the Atlantic 70 the Pacific, from
the Gulf to the Lakes, our people are need
lessly drinking po;futed water
What is wEse, water pollution is on the in
crease. with the rapid growth of our popu-
laton," says Alec H. Seymour, Secretary of
the New York State Board of Health, in
cent bulletin, the def1lement of streams
also increases. Some Of finest streams
and lakes are being rendered unavailable for
boating, bathing, fishing, and domestic use
They are Of no value except as cesspools."
Typhoid fever cannot contract without
taking into ones system germs that have been
voided by a typhoid patient. These germs
get into the body through the mouth, pass
through the stomach into the intestines, and
are carried through the body by the blood
They leave the body through the bowels and
in the urine. Sometimes infection is carried
by contact through vegetables and milk;
but the common channel of typhoid transmits
sion is through water supply. I'm order
that germs could find entrance into drinking
water" to quote DR.. Howe again, there must
have been carelessness in caring for the body
wastes Of previous Victims" And this care
lessness, we have seen, consists for the
most part in allowing our water sources to be
polluted with sewage.
In consequence, typhoid, winter cholera, and
diarrhoea most prevalent along water
courses used for both sewage disposal and
water supply. Conversely the typhoid rate
of any town continuously using a given water
supply fairly represents the santory quality
of that water supply.
The truth OF this will be seen by a CON-
parison of the typhoid rates Of towns using
clean water with the rates OF towns using
polluted water In Michigan. for instance,
Alegan4 a town Of 2,795 population Tin 1904
with pure water supply. had, between 1889
and 1906 80 cases Of typhoid and Deaths
South Haven, town Of 2,767 inhabitants, with
water drawn from Lake Michigan within 100
feet or sewer outlet had In the same period
PAS cases and "a deaths Manistee, with 1890
population and pure water from wells, had
during these same years a typhoid rate of Is
per 100000 population; whereas Menominee,
with 1866 population and polluted water from
Green Bay, had a typhoid rate per 900 of
81. Hartford Mich, with 1926 population and
impure we'll water, had between 1889 and
1906. "a typhoid cases and deaths; whereas
Montague, with 1921 population and pure we'll
water. had In the same period only cases
and deaths. Again, Benton Harbor, with
pure water from deep wells. had a death rate
per 100000 of 49, Grand Haven, with pure
we'll water. rate of 1873: and St. Joseph,
with pure lake water, rate OF 1913; whereas
the following New York towns using polluted
river or lake water had for ten years-1s99
to 19oS-these typhoid rates: Lockport, 4s4;
Oswego, 49.4: Ogdensburg, 54.6; Cohoes, s4.s;
Niagara Falls 1929: and Pittsburg, using
polluted river water, had a typhoid rate, from
1900 to 1907, that averages 1877 per 100000.
Before the typhoid rate of cities that have
been scourged with epidemics the high ty-
phoid mortality Of such cities as Pittsburg
and Niagara Falls dwndes into insignificance
In Watertown "A out of 5S2 cases were fatal;
in Ithaca 50 out Of 1850; in Pittsburg 1872
out of 5,265. In Plymouth ia out of ,1O4 per-