The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-25
Bad Odors Not Always Evi- dence of Soil Pollution. Few Disease Producing
 Germs Grow in the Soil

soil, water and air, writes Dr. R. M
 Cunningham. in his weekly health bulle-
 tin, No. ?, issued yesterday. Therefore,
 tn this bulletin the doctor takes up
 the discussion of soil, the facts he brings
 cut as to the relation of the human race
 to the soil upon which it lives being
 little less than amazing. The bulletin
 follows
 In former bulletins the writer has dis
 cussed the cause and prevention of indi-
 vidual diseases. There are three topics
 of general interest in the causation and
 prevention of disease to-wit. soil, water snd air. Willie these cooperate in their Influence upon the living and dead each
 has certain pecularities; therefore
 separate discussion is proposed for each
 The Soil-The soil is not a primary ma
 terial, nor is it primarily d product of growth; on the contrary it is the product
 of decay or disntegration of rocks. At
 the beginning the soil is therefore, who'll
 ly mineral the kinds and quality of which
 depend upon the kind and quality of the rock from which it is formed. Afterwards
 this primary soil becomes mixed with
 living and dead animal and vegetable matter. The constitution, elementary and
 compound, of soil differs, depending upon
 the elementary constitution of the rock from which it is made, and upon the proportion of organic matter. animal and vegetable, with which the primary soil
 Is mixed. Soil has three properties physical chemical and biological The physical properties are determined by the size and number of 'soil grains," the size and number of the pores. or spaces, between the grains. These together de- termine the density and porosity of the soil, and influence the chemical and bi- clogical properties or rather functions of the soil. The soil contains water air and other gases. The chemical activity consists in breaking up various com rounds and forming of other compounds Its biological activity consists in select ing appropriate food for different plants Altogether the soil absorbs, digests, breathes, appropriates and excretes-in fact, soil metabolism (nutrition) that Resembles all these in organic or living things. The soil contains large number of bacteria, mostly soprophytes, which perform a specific function. In a word, the soil is a great laboratory in which dead animal and vegetable matter are deeomposed by the process of putrefaction'I tuto their elements-oxygen. carbon hy- Grogen, nitrogen, etc, thus liberating these clements from their dead com pounds, and recombining them for food for plants, which food Is taken up and appropriated by the cells of living plants, showing the wise provision of Providence that the dead may be again and again used for the growth of the living. Other wise, the elements would be finally locked up in the dead and there would be no elements to make food for the living The outer surface of the soil contains most of its organic matter. while the mineral is found in the deeper soil mostly The water In the soil is divided into the superficial and deep-or soil and subsoil. The soil absorbs water in various de- grees. dependent upon it's density and porosity. A very porous. light soil takes ul water rapidly. e. g., sandy soil, while dense and heavy soil takes it up slowly, | c. g., clay soil. A soil is saturated when its pores are filled with water; it is moist when the pores are not filled A saturated soil cannot perform it's func- tions. Neither can dry soil--hence too much rain or none at all means poor | growth of vegetation. The source of soil | water Is the rain overflow. The soil, 1 or its subtcrranean passages, which are l hidden streams, is the medium through which the rain water reaches the springs and streams which vonvey 1t to the sea- | Much rain water flows off upon the i surface, depending upon the topography | of the land. Hence, there are hills. | bottoms and swamp lands The water | carries with it. depending upon the | smount and velocity, a portion of the surface soil with its dead and living | things, to be finally deposited in made | lands along the course of overhowing | streams and carried to the sea and ul- | eimately makes islands. The chief sani- l tary interest in this mechanical effect is | that soil polluted with disease producing | ohcterin, the eggs and larvae of para | sites. both of which may be a source of | Infection in man, long distances away | from where they started
 The depth of the soil varies from a | Few inches to hundreds of feet The sur l Face of the soil changes not only by | washings, but also by deposits The | deeper soils contain no living vegetable | or animal thing. There are no bacterin | Of putrefaction. as shown by the non putrefaction of timbers tpiles) driven deep into the soil. Many cities are built on | these, and they do not rot. Soils that | are now deep and lifeless once were on | the surface and contained living vegetable | and animal matter, as shown by coal seams and the fossils of animals and Vegetables. In coal seams arc found | shapes of the trunks. forks, limbs and | leaves of trees, and iu fossils the shape | or animals or vegetables which have ptul1ieu, or which have afterwards dis appeared leaving cavity that represents tne shape Of the animal plants. The | practcai sanitary application of all this as that the deep soil is free from all bac- terial life, and. therefore, harmless and eenonstrates the qualification of water os IL soaks through. the deeper soil Deep water, however is not always thus purified on the contrary, it may reach deep into the earth through subterraneao channels reaching to or near the surface and in these subterranean streams po- luted water flows to well or spring and be dangerous. These general proposi- tions must be remembered to understand the pollution of water" the subject of the next bulletin.
 The temperature of the soil is derived from the sun and no little from the in- terior, and some of it is produced by it's chemical and biological activity. The air | is obtained from the atmosphere. About | 70 to 50 per cent of the elementary con | stitlition of surface soil is oxygen Soil PollutionThs is 2 problem for | the sanitarian." 1t is popular idea that | bad odors are evidence of soil pollution. | Indeed. in flle popular mind, d thing that | smells had is dangerous to heaith In | only one sseDse is this so, it may Interfere | With appetite and digestion if long con tinued, and lead to diminished resistance; thus predisposing to disease. Excluding | the unpleasant odors excrsted by certain animals, e. g. the skunk. and plants. bad | Odors result from the decomposition of l dead organic matter. which contains no | living germ to produce disease. The real | question in soil pollution is does the soil | contain disease producing bacteria. the