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Leakage of Sewers into Wells.

subject presented to the Massachusetts Board of Health that the common proximate cause of typhoid fever in that State is organized matter (chiefly vegetable) in a state of decomposition. "Whether the vehicle be drinking water made foul by human excrement, sink drains, or soiled clothing; or air made foul in enclosed places by drains, decaying vegetables, or fish (Swampscott), or old timber (Tisbury), or in open places by pigsties, drained ponds or reservoirs, stagnant water, accumulations of filth of every sort, the one thing present in all these circumstances is decomposition."

If decomposing organic matter be then the proximate cause of typhoid, sanitary measures might be rendered as efficacious in the abatement of this disease in villages and the open country as in the most densely crowded towns.

Those who believe that impure potable water has but little to do with the spread of the malady contend that it is the foul air issuing from the soil, and not from the water, that conveys the typhoid contagium. No outbreak of the disease can occur until the soil is typhoid ripe. The most dangerous condition of the soil is when the ground water is sinking after a previous rise. In Massachusetts it would appear that the period during which typhoid fever is prevalent coincides with that in which the water is lowest in the wells. The editor of the reports on typhoid fever in the Report of the Board of Health suggests that the comparative immunity from this disease enjoyed by the denizens of the larger cities may be due to the pavement and other impervious layers which cover the soil. If emanations from the soil be the source of the disease, the safest plan is to sleep in the highest stories of our houses. As for cellars and kitchens, the authorities should prohibit their use as sleeping apartments.

On studying carefully the literature of cholera and typhoid fever, I have come to the conclusion that the evidence in favour of the view that the disease is largely spread by polluted water is conclusive.

Dr. W. B. Richardson, of Dublin, requested me to examine a well water which had been used by a large family in Kingstown, nearly all of whom had been attacked with typhoid, which in several cases proved fatal. The water was very bad, and contained albuminoid and ammoniacal nitrogen in very large quantities. It was subsequently found that the pipe from the water closet discharged its contents into a cul de sac situated within a yard of the well.

Typhoid fever broke out some time ago in two of the departments of the staff of the Board of National Education. On examining the water used by the persons affected, I found it highly impregnated with sewage impurities. Since the introduction of the pure water of the Vartry for the foul pump water previously used in these departments no further cases of typhoid have occurred.

It is believed by many epidemiologists that water polluted with the excreta of healthy persons is capable of producing

Relation between Goitre and Water.

85

typhoid; but if that be the case, this disease is not a true zymotic, like small-pox or scarlatina.

If such polluted water were capable of propagating cholera, it is strange that the disease is not more common, seeing potable waters of this country are so generally contaminated with sewage. I have known whole families to use for years well waters largely impregnated with sewage, and yet typhoid never appeared amongst them, and I have frequently met with cases where the water used by families was very bad, and yet produced no serious disease until there was the strongest proof that the dejections of a typhoid patient had entered. I could cite numerous cases of this kind, but one will serve as an illustration. A person went on a visit to the family of an official of the Corporation of Dublin, and immediately was stricken down with typhoid, the incubatory stage of which disease must have been going on for some time previous to his arrival. Though isolated from the family, the disease in due time appeared amongst them, in what appeared to be an unaccountable manner. I examined the well water used by the family, and found it loaded with animal impurities. A direct connection between the shaft of the well and the house sewer was soon after discovered, and the mode in which the typhoid poison had been propagated explained. If decomposing animal matter is capable of giving rise to typhoid, it is certainly strange that it did not cause an outbreak in the case above described; for the foul water had long been in use, and the connection between the well and the sewer was of long standing. There is not sufficient evidence to show that other zymotic diseases than cholera and typhoid are propagated through the medium of foul water; but as scarlatina has been spread (as will be shown further on) by polluted milk, it is not unlikely that it may be communicated by means of water.

Goitre and cretinism are often attributed to the use of certain kinds of water, but the nature of the impurity in water, or whether or not it is due to the absence of some mineral ingredient, are still debated points. The presence of large quantities of magnesian salts, of lime compounds, of fluorine, of copper, and other heavy metals, and of large amounts of vegetable organic matter, has been by different writers assigned a goitre-producing faculty. If earthy salts produce goitre, then the disease ought to be very common in Ireland, which is not the case, because Irish well water contains very large quantities of magnesian and calcareous salts. The want of iodine in Swiss waters is said to be the cause of much of the goitrous disease met with in Switzerland, but there is really no sufficient data for such a hypothesis. Whilst the cause or causes which produce goitre are almost unknown, there is a wonderful concordance of opinion amongst medical writers from the earliest to the present time in attributing to water the production of this disease. Various species of worms, such as Ascaris lumbricoides (round worm), Strongylus duodenalis, and Filaria dracunculus (guinea worm), are believed to enter the body through the medium of

water.

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Lead Poisoning through Water.

The family of the late King Louis Philippe, whilst residing at Claremount, suffered from symptoms of lead poisoning, produced by the use of water containing 7-10th of a grain per gallon of lead. According to Dr. Angus Smith, one-fourth of a grain per gallon is sometimes sufficient to affect persons peculiarly susceptible to the influence of this poison. Several cases of chronic poisoning by lead-impregnated water have come under my observation.

In the Second Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Health there is a paper on the subject of poisoning by water containing minute traces of lead. The following query was addressed to a number of persons in different towns :

"Have any cases of lead colic or lead paralysis occurred in your town or district, in which you have been able to trace the origin of the disease to water pipes ?"

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The replies are from one hundred and seventy correspondents, in as many different places, and are as follows:

Yes,

No,

Doubt expressed,

41

8

No lead used in the town,

"It is stated that in certain towns lead pipe is only used to convey water from springs, and that, when allowed to flow continually without plugs or stop-cocks, no harm has been known to follow.

The negative replies are very brief, and may be construed as meaning generally that no bad effects have been observed, rather than that, in the opinion of the writers, none may occur from the contact of drinking water and metallic lead.

The affirmative replies are direct and positive, and are usually accompanied by evidence. They occasionally refer to other accidental modes of poisining by lead, as by hair dyes, which are almost universally composed of acetate of lead and sulphur in various proportions; also by cider and vinegar drawn through lead faucets."

Soft water containing much organic matter, nitrates, and gases act most readily upon lead; hard water least. Hard water containing chlorides may act slightly upon lead, those rich in sulphates come next, and those which hardly, if at all, attack the metal are waters rich in carbonates. The Dublin pipe water is soft, but I find that it does not sensibly act upon an alloy of 96.5 parts of lead and 3-5 parts of tin. The water of Edinburgh is said to contain 1-140th grain of lead per gallon; but no bad effects have been attributed to the use of that water.

Add a little acetic acid and ammonium acetate to gallon of water, concentrate it to 2 ounces, and add solution of sulphuretted hydrogen. A dark precipitate or colour indicates lead or copper. Collect the precipitate, place on charcoal, and with the blowpipe flame reduce the metal from it. Dissolve the metal in nitric acid, and to neutral solution add iodide of potassium, which produces yellow iodide of lead, Copper, mercury, zinc, and arsenic rarely

occur in water.

Water used in Dublin.

CHAPTER IX.

QUALITY OF THE WATER USED IN IRISH TOWNS.

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The quality of the water used in the majority of Irish towns and villages is bad-sometimes very bad. The "parish pump" collects not only the rain-water which falls on the catchment basin of the district, but also no inconsiderable amount of the liquid refuse thrown out from houses and stables. Many of the landed proprietors of Ireland are engaged in the meritorious work of providing decent dwellings for the labourers on their estates; some of these benevolent persons would, no doubt, procure or aid in obtaining supplies of good water for the use of the villages on their properties were their attention directed to the subject. Lord Annally has recently so supplied, to some extent, the tenants on his Clare estates. The water used for this purpose is of good quality, containing very minute quantities of nitrogen compounds. The municipal authorities of towns and the Boards of Guardians have now full power to provide pure and ample supplies of water for their respective districts.

Dublin. The capital and its suburbs are supplied with highpressure water, conveyed from a reservoir formed by damming up the Vartry river. The reservoir is situated on an elevated granitic district of the county of Wicklow, twenty-three miles distant from the city; it is capable of supplying thirty-five gallons per diem per head of the population of the city and its suburbs. The water contains 4 grains of solids per gallon, of which 2 grains consist of substances volatilizable at a red heat. Its albuminoid nitrogen is sometimes as low as 0.002 grain per gallon, and its ammonia seldom exceeds 0.001 grain per gallon. It contains, occasionally, very minute traces of nitrous and nitric acids, evidently the products of the oxidation of vegetable matter. The Vartry water is pure and wholesome, and no one should now use the pump water of the city, which is often very polluted. I shall give but one example of a Dublin pump (but all are, fortunately, not so bad).

COMPOSITION OF THE WATER FROM THE PUMP AT THE HORSE POLICE BARRACKS, KEVIN-STREET.

One gallon contains:

Total solids,

Large quantities of nitrogen compounds, chlorine, and gypsum present.

Waterford. It is hardly possible to find a town so badly supplied with water, both with respect to quality and quantity, as Waterford. The Corporation own considerable property, and the taxation is, consequently, very light; yet a large number of the citizens object to the expense necessary to the procurement of a

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Water Supplies of Waterford.

good water supply. The Corporation, some years ago, obtained an Act of Parliament for the purpose of introducing pure water into the city, and it is to be hoped that the Act may not, like so many other well-intended measures, be allowed to remain a dead letter.

Waterford is, to a great extent, dependant upon its own wells for its water. About fifty of these well waters have, from time to time, been submitted to me for analysis by the Corporation, and, with few exceptions, I found them highly contaminated with animal matter and the products of its decomposition. One of these, which appears to have been in great demand, was, without exception, the worst water that ever came under my notice by observation or reading. A gallon of it contained :

Besides considerable quantities of nitrites and nitrates.

On closely smelling this water a faint urinous odour was ob served. The chlorine existed chiefly in combination with calcium and magnesium; and although the "solids" were so abundant, they did not include carbonate of calcium. The amount of ammonia in this water greatly exceeded the quantity which I found in some specimens of Dublin sewage.

Another specimen of Waterford pump water contained 385.8 grains (nearly an ounce) of solids per gallon, including 0.4 grain of albuminoid nitrogen, 1.5 grain of ammonia, 34 grains of gypsum, and 76 grains of chloride of sodium. I found in another wellwater 171.9 grains of solids per gallon, including 0.5 grain ammonia, 0-25 grain albuminoid nitrogen, 105 grains of earthy sulphates, and 38 grains of chlorine.

The Waterford News, May 16th, 1873, thus describes the deficiencies in the city water-supply:

THE RESERVOIRS.-At present the four reservoirs of the city are fairly supplied with water, though, as the season advances, it will gradually diminish to a very low ebb. In short, the daily supply to houses taking pipewater must be cut off to three or four days in the week, or even less. There are not 400 out of 4,000 houses taking this water. There is no more to give. The Corporation have to refuse applications to supply other houses with pipewater. Three of the reservoirs are closely surrounded by bacon cellars, as also by cabins and yards of the foulest class.

THE PUMPS.-The waters from the following pumps were found not available for cooking purposes. Two in Bally bricken Green-one in the Mayor's Walk-one in the Glen-one in Johnstown-one on Thomas's-hillone in Little Patrick-street. In fact, the inhabitants pronounced the waters from all the pumps as too hard for the uses of the kitchen. In this they exactly agree with the analysis of Dr. Cameron.

THE CONDUITS.-The waters from the conduits come under the same head. The two conduits on the quay (at the clock-tower and market-house) are only used for all kinds of cattle. The conduit in John-street runs dry