Original Paper. IMPORTANCE OF HYDRO-GEOLOGI- rapidity of the discharge of this underground water depending on the porosity of the strata, and the size and extent of the ducts which convey it to its natural point of outfall. These subterranean currents, although hidden from view, obey the same laws with reference to their flow as streams which move on the surface of the earth. Elevations, faults, and artificial works BY BALDWIN LATHAM, C.E., M. INST. C.E., may interfere with their flow. The late very Rev. F.G.S., F.M.S. Dr. Buckland observed that the elevation of the subterranean water between the town of Watford It is now generally admitted that all supplies of and the highest spring that issued from the neighwater are due to rainfall; a portion of the rain per-bouring chalk hills was 300 feet in a distance of colates into the earth and forms a subterranean store which is almost in universal requisition to supply the wants of man. The amount of rain that percolates into the earth depends, in a great measure, upon the geological character and physical outline of the district. The experiments of Dalton, Dickenson, Evans, Greaves, and Lawes and Gilbert show that the percolation varies in different years, and at different periods of each year, the replenishment of the store of underground water usually taking place in the winter months, and the exhaustion of the store in the summer and autumn months. The amount of water in the earth, other things being proportional, is equal to the volume of the strata, or the thickness of the beds. There are, however, other matters which affect the quantity of water percolating, such as the extent and nature of the outcrop of the strata receiving the rainfall, the volume of the strata, the lithological character, and the free communication between different parts. Professor Frestwich states, in his work upon the Water Bearing Strata of London,' that 'oolites, lime-stones, some sandstones, etc., instead of holding definite quantities of water in proportion to their masses, will hold indefinite quantities proportional only to the number and magnitude of the crevices and fissures by which they are traversed; and the water so held will not pass indifferently in any direction, but must follow the irregular and uncertain channels presented by these joints and fissures.' The late very Reverend Dr. Buckland pointed out that the water held in store by the earth did not, as a rule, maintain a horizontal level, but that its surface possessed a considerable fall in particular directions corresponding to the points of discharge of springs. The fall of the water line having been established, it is not difficult to perceive that, where a considerable difference in surface level of subterranean water is discernible, this water must be moving in the direction of its outfall or natural vent. Water level, therefore, in subterranean strata, means the line drawn from the highest point at which it accumulates to the lowest point, or point of vent. Most geological strata, in a natural state, may be considered to be full to the level of the sea; beyond this there is an extensive store of water above this level rising in many districts to a considerable altitude. The inclined surface of this water is the measure of resistance to the movement of the water in its passage, or in other words, it is the measure of the element of friction and molecular attraction which interferes with the free discharge of the water, so that the water is retained in its subterranean reservoirs and but slowly delivered from them, the * Read before the British Association Meeting, Glasgow, on Friday, Sept. 8, 1876.. buck made a communication to the Institution of fourteen miles. In 1842, the Rev. James ClutterCivil Engineers, in which it was stated that the replenishment of the chalk, north of London, usually occurred between December and March, and that the water accumulates in the chalk proportionately as the point of observation is removed from the river, or natural vent of the water, and that the water in the chalk when full, falls between April and November, the variation in level in the upper chalk exceeding fifty feet. In 1843, he further stated, at a meeting at the Institution of Civil Engineers, in reference to falls of water in the chalk: It is then shown that a line drawn from a point three miles south of the Colne, at the level of that river, or 170 feet above Trinity high water mark, at mean tide level in the Thames below London Bridge, (a dip of 180 feet in fourteen miles, or an average inclination of thirteen feet per mile), cut the water level at the point whence it is drawn at Hendon Union Workhouse, and at Cricklewood, between that place and Kilburn, whence it may be inferred that, up to this point, there is no apparent trace of a depression of level caused by the exhaustion of water under London.' In a communication from John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1861, it is stated: The inclination at which water would stand in the middle chalk, north of London was, under ordinary circumstances, at least thirteen feet six inches to the mile, which was proyed by the streams generally running at about that slope. It was evident that if water could pass through the chalk with that inclination, it would find its way by some underground passage, instead of by the streams. In its lower beds the chalk was of a nature to increase the friction, and it would be found that, in the neighbourhood of Berkhampstead, the water stood at an inclination of about nineteen feet six inches to the mile, and in some parts of Kent, and elsewhere, at as much as forty feet to the mile.' Professor Prestwich, in his work on 'The WaterBearing Strata of London,' states that the fall of water in the tertiary beds is about five feet per mile at Garrett, and four feet per mile at Waltham Abbey, while the well of Grenille, in the lower greensand, indicated a fall of two feet per mile. In a work entitled 'Horizontal Wells,' Mr. Lucas, F.G.S., has given a number of sections showing the water-line in the chalk in Surrey. The results of a hydro-geological survey made by the author, of the neighbourhood south of Croydon, show that there is considerable variation in the fall of the subterranean water. The following table probably gives the greatest fall of the water, as the levels were taken at a period when the chalk was free. In all cases the fall of subterranean water decreases as the exhaustion of the strata proceeds. * This is a measurement from upper greensand into the chalk. The table on the next column gives the height to which the water has risen in the Godstone Quarries from 1843 to 1876, together with the period of the year when the highest water was reached. A hydro-geological survey of the neighbourhood of East Dereham, Norfolk, made by the author when prospecting for the site of water works shows that, in the case of wells sunk in the boulder clay overlying the chalk, the level of the surface of the subterranean water varies in the town from 2 feet per mile in the flat table-land to 100 feet per mile in the valleys. The movement of subterranean water appears to have been known even in classic times. We find it recorded that, in the war between Cæsar and Pompey, when at Petra, 'Pompey suffered very much. They could get no water on the rock, and when he attempted to sink wells. Cæsar so perverted the watercourses that the wells gave no water. Cæsar tells us that he dammed up the streams, making little lakes to hold it, so that it should not trickle down in its underground courses to the comfort of his enemies.' No question can be of more importance from a sanitary point of view than that of the supply of wholesome water. It is known that water does not in itself change in character, but becomes noxious as it is made the vehicle for conveying injurious matter. Hippocrates appears to have been aware of the importance of pure water, and, moreover, of the best places for its selection, or as it has been stated, ' upon the aspect of its sources as well as upon its elevation.' Mr. Simon, of the medical department Moderate flow of Bourne reached Croydon Small Bourne in Caterham Valley of the Privy Council, in his report of 1869, stated that, 'The doctrine, in general terms, that a vast influence is exercised over the health of communities by the quality of the water which they consume, is one which, as far back in literature as any reference to such questions could be expected to exist, may be seen to have universal medical consent in its favour; and during long ages of history, the common instincts of mankind were even purer and stronger than undeveloped science. Of the many invaluable additions and improvements which medical knowledge has received within the last quarter of a century, scarcely any can, in my opinion, be compared for present practical importance to the discoveries which have given scientific exactitude to parts of the above stated general doctrine, and have enabled us definitely to connect the epidemic spread of bowel infections in this country with the existence of certain faults of water-supply. Not only is it now certain that the faulty public water-supply of a town may be the essential cause of the most terrible epidemic outbreaks of cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and other allied disorders; but even doubts are widely entertained whether these diseases, or some of them, can possibly attain general prevalence in a town except where the faulty water-supply develops them.' Such may be said to be the testimony of one of the highest medical authorities in this country. Authorities in other countries have likewise drawn attention to the importance of the purity of water-supplies, and, moreover, Professor Pettenkofer has shown that there are, in some cases, certain definite relations between epidemics of enteric fever and cholera and the state of the level of the ground water. In the year 1870, the author was called upon by the Croydon Local Board, to inquire into the state of health of the inhabitants of a cluster of 69 houses situated in the hamlet of Wallington, near to the sewage irrigation works of the Croydon Local Board. The author then reported, that in all the houses in which the cesspools were placed on the north of the habitation, they had been, so far as was known to the present inhabitants, entirely free from any zymotic disease, whilst in those with cesspools located in other aspects, the tenants had suffered at different times from various kinds of zymotic disease. At that time the author attributed it to the effect of the prevailing winds wafting any miasms in the direction of these houses, but more careful investigation shows with respect to these houses, that the current of underground water is from south-east to north-west, and that the well and the cesspool are invariably on opposite sides of the house. In all cases in which the well is located, as respects the fall of the subterranean water, above the cesspool, the house has been invariably healthy, and in every case in which the cesspool is located above the water-supply, that house has, so long as the water from the well was in use, never been long free from enteric fever; in fact the use of water from most of the wells so located has been prohibited by the medical gentlemen in attendance on the occupants of these houses. During the year 1875, an outbreak of enteric fever having occurred in the parish of Coulsden, near to Caterham Junction, south of Croydon, and knowing that the inhabitants of these houses had previously suffered from outbreaks of this fever, the author found that in the case of all the occupants of all the houses affected with the disease, the cesspools were situated on the subterranean current above the well, so that polluting matter was naturally carried by the movement of the water into the well. Numerous other cases in different parts of the country have also been brought to the author's attention, which clearly show that, in many instances, if attention had been paid to the subterranean movement of the water, and the sites of the wells and cesspools exchanged, much disease and death would, in all probability, have been prevented. The periods at which epidemics of cholera, enteric fever, dysentery, and diarrhoea occur, show that usually they have reference to the low state of the springs, when the movement of the water is least active, and therefore when the concentration of impurities is the greatest. It has been very clearly shown that the movements of underground water do influence the health of populations. In the Transactions of this Association for 1837 it is mentioned, in a paper by Mr. Urquhart, that the plague at Constantinople is shown to have particularly affected districts in which the burial-grounds stood above the places afflicted. In the seventh report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, an example of drainage from a cemetery affecting health is given, 'That mentioned by Pietra Santa, of the villages of Rolendella and Bollita, in Italy. The cemeteries of these villages were at the summit of a wooded hill, at a considerable distance from the houses. The springs from which water was obtained was at the foot of this hill, and ultimately the water became highly contaminated. A severe epidemic which recently visited these villages was ascribed to the use of this impure water. A similar case occurred during the past year at Barbary, as an incident of the plague which has recently visited that country. The people of a certain village lived in excavations in rocks, getting their water-supply from wells into which water had run from the cemetery, where bodies were covered only a foot deep with gravel. Those only who drank this impure water were attacked with plague.' So important is this matter considered in some countries as to the contamination of drinking water by proximity to cemeteries, that regulations have been laid down as to the distance which they shall be from inhabited districts. 'In Italy no well is allowed to be sunk within one hundred yards of any cemetery, and double this distance is required in France and Austria. This is called the "protective distance," but has, in some cases, been thought to be too small. The Hygeienan Council at Brussels in 1852 decided that a distance of 400 yards was protective, but even this distance has sometimes been conceived to be inadequate.' In Prussia no cemetery is allowed within 500 paces of any dwelling. At Lausen, on the railway between Basel and Olter, the morbific matter of disease was carried a distance of two miles through a hill to the village on the opposite side, as recorded in the fifteenth annual report of the Army Medical Officer. This latter village, however, was below the point to which the infectious matter was carried; but on the direct line of flow of the subterranean water, as was subsequently proved by experiment. The safe distance with regard to the influence of cemeteries and other sources of contamination on the water of wells will depend upon the position of the point of pollution, with reference to the water-supply. A well situated a few yards above a cemetery with regard to the flow of the water, may be perfectly safe, whereas one located below a cemetery on the direct line of flow, present experience shows that no reasonable distance can be said to be a safe limit. So long since as 1827, it was shown by Professor Liebig, that nitrates existed in twelve wells in the town of Giessen, but none was found in wells two or three hundred yards from the town. (The direction of the flow is not given in this case.) Examination of waters, both within and without a town, or waters flowing to or from a town, give a marked difference in a chemical point of view. In the Transactions of this Association for 1851, Dr. R. A. Smith says, with regard to the impurity of well-water: 'The number of cases of sickness from these causes is, I am inclined to think, greater than is believed.' This expression had reference more to impurities that might be supposed to pass into the wells from their unprotected state than being due to the position of the well itself, in reference to the causes of pollution; but the fact is recorded by a careful observer that well-water, under certain conditions, does not minister to the health of the persons using it. The baneful effects of storing or nurturing excrementitious matter in receptacles in close contiguity to our water-supplies are patent, at times, to the most casual observer, but the public and many professed sanitary reformers are not thoroughly alive to the magnitude of the evils due to this cause. A careful hydro-geological survey will show the directions in which subterranean water is moving, and may enable the residents of country houses to locate their well for procuring a supply of water, and the cesspools, in such a position as to avoid impurities passing from the cesspool to the well; but as a general rule, no consideration is given to this matter, and it is usually seen that the cesspool is so located that it leads to the pollution of the water-supply, or the underground current, after receiving its load of im THE purities, slowly passes under the dwelling-house, and as the soil under the house, from being protected from the weather, will invariably be found to be cracked and fissured to a considerable depth, impure SANITARY RECORD. aëration takes place from a polluted ground atinosphere. It is a significant fact that in all epidemic outbreaks of enteric fever, whether directly ascribed to the influence of water, or to milk, in every case the water used had been procured from wells. It was shown by Dr. Farr, with reference to the outbreaks of cholera in the metropolis, that as regards the relative intensity with which this disease attacked various parts, nearly the whole force of the blow was expended on the lowest levels. Moreover, from the reports published by Dr. Laycock, in the first volume of the 'Report of the Commission on Towns,' with respect to York, it is shown that in the sweating sickness of 1550 and 1551, and again in the plague of 1601, that these epidemics exhibited the same relation with regard to the season of the year as exhibited in modern times by other epidemics. In conducting a hydro-geological survey, it should be thoroughly borne in mind that, as a rule, water underground follows the natural inclination of the surface of the district, but there are exceptions to this rule. There are also circumstances which may modify the flow of water, such, for example, as the abstraction of a large volume of water at a particular point by pumping from a well, which well would become the centre for a drainage area extending, in all probability, to a considerable distance from the well, or in some flat districts the elevation of the water line of a river in time of flood, may reverse the direction of flow of the underground water, unless, as is the case in some wells which are known to be tidal, the volume of water flowing to the river is very large. It is scarcely possible in a town where there are so many points for pollution, to so locate a surface well as not to be affected by some of them. The use of the water from surface wells located within a town ought, therefore, to be prohibited being used for domestic purposes. In villages, the wells should be located outside and above the village in reference to the flow of subterranean water. The same remark applies to the well for procuring a supply of water to a private house. It is rather singular that, while measures are being adopted for the prevention of the pollution of streams flowing on the surface, and which, by the way, have never been traced to be the cause of disease, no one has thought of the great evils that have resulted, and will result, from the pollution of the underground sources of water-supply. The object of the author has been to direct attention to this all important subject, and to point out, in cases where the use of cesspools is unavoidable, that there are ways in which they may be introduced without detriment to the health of the persons using the water which, possibly, can only be procured from a local well. AT Brighton, where there has lately been considerable agitation with reference to the Vaccination Acts, the magistrates have intimated their determination to use their utmost powers to enforce the provisions of the statute, and several persons who had failed to comply with the previous orders of the bench were each fined 20s. and costs, or 14 days' imprisonment. The stipendiary stated that the penalty would be continuously repeated until the requirements of the law were met. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877. The Editor will be glad to receive, with a view to publication, announcements of meetings, reports of proceedings, and abstracts or originals of papers read before the members of any sanitary or kindred association. THE BURIALS BILL. WE are glad to infer from the form of this measure, and from other things, that the present Government are intending that the consolidation of Acts of Parliament shall hereafter be one of their claims on the goodwill of the country, for there is no doubt whatever that our present system of Parliamentary legislation is open to very grave objections. To take only the very subject we are now going to deal with. The law respecting burials is at this moment comprised in no fewer than eleven statutes passed within the short period of twenty years. No wonder, then, that this branch of the law is a chaos of confusion, and the remark applies to several other branches of law of great social importance, notably the law relating to the relief of the poor, factories, and public health, notwithstanding the partial consolidation effected in 1875. The Bill which has been introduced into the House of Lords by the Duke of Richmond to consolidate and amend the Burial Acts will awaken various feelings of criticism depending on the standpoint of the critic, according as his mind may happen to have a legal, a medical, a political or an ecclesiastical turn, but looking at the measure as a whole, and from an independent point of view, we cannot but feel it has been well devised, and that it deserves the support of men of business who can examine such questions independently of politics. The scope of the Bill may be ascertained from the preamble, which recites that it is expedient, with a view to the protection of the public health, to make further provision respecting the closing of burial grounds which are injurious to health, to facilitate the establishment of new burial grounds, and to consolidate with amendments the Acts relating to burials. The Bill comprises 88 clauses ranged under seven heads. Part I. relates to the closing of burial grounds, and invests the Local Government Board with large powers as to this matter. When it appears to that board, on the representation of a sanitary authority, or otherwise, either that there is not proper space in a burial ground, or that where there is such space the continued use of the ground is, by reason of its situation, or otherwise, injurious to the public health, or that it is expedient to discontinue burials within any city or town or other limits, the Local Government Board may, after inquiry, make an order to stop burials, either altogether or with certain exceptions. An order must be confirmed by an Order in Council; or, if it would affect a cemetery under a Local Act, the order must be confirmed by Parliament. An order for discontinuing burials in any city or town is not to extend to any nonparochial burial ground unless such ground is expressly mentioned in the order. We note with genuine satisfaction that one of the reasons which are mentioned as a legal reason for discontinuing a a burial ground is its situation in relation to the water-supply of a place; and, whatever theological disputants may say to the contrary, the Public Health Preservation features of the Duke of Richmond's Bill are, to our mind, a strong point in its favour. It is in development of this idea, so far at least as open spaces are advantageous to the public health, that Clause 2 empowers local authorities to maintain and embellish disused burial grounds. The second part of the bill relates to the provision of new burial grounds. Where an order for discontinuing burials extends to a burial ground, in which the inhabitants of any burial district are entitled to be buried, the authority for that district shall provide a burial ground under the Act, unless there is consecrated and unconsecrated ground available which is both sufficient and suitable. The duty is cast in plain terms on the burial authority of making adequate provision wherever, owing to the increase of population or otherwise, the existing provision is defective. If a burial authority makes default in fulfilling its duty of complying with the requirements of this section, means are provided for enforcing the performance of that duty. Where the ratepayers of a district to the number of not less than one-twentieth send a complaint that the existing provision is defective, the burial authority must provide a burial ground, unless they think additional accommodation is not requisite. If the memorialists are dissatisfied with the decision of the burial authority, they may appeal to the Secretary of State, who may order compliance with the request of the memorialists. The remaining Clauses of Part III. are chiefly reenactments of existing law, but Ciause 14 is new and important. Each of the following areas is to be a Burial District for the purposes of the Act :-(1) an area which is at the commencement of the Act under a Burial Board; (2) a Poor Law Parish of which no part is at the commencement of the Act under a Burial Board; and (3) where part of a Parish is and part is not under a Board, so much of the Parish as is outside the jurisdiction of the Board. The Burial authority is to be (1) in a Burial Board District, the Burial Board; and (2) for any other Burial District, the inhabitants in vestry. The vestry may in any case, and, for the purpose of acquiring burial ground or chapel accommodation, shall appoint a committee, and after that is done all the burial powers and duties of the vestry shall be performed by the committee alone in the name of the vestry. The Local Government Board is empowered, by Clause 17, to constitute burial districts, and other clauses, borrowed in principle from the Public Health Act, empower the Local Government Board to enforce the performance of its duty by a defaulting authority; whilst provision is also made for uniting adjoining authorities. We must defer till next week an abstract of the remaining five Parts of this Bill. HOW THE DUBLIN AUTHORITIES MANAGE SMALL-POX. WE reprint verbatim the following statement. Our readers will form their own opinion as to the benefit likely to accrue from the influence exercised over the Public Health Committee of Dublin and their officers by one of their members. CORPORATION OF DUBLIN. Report of the Public Health Committee, in re Destruction of Clothes of Small-Pox Patients. Your committee beg leave to report that at their meeting on February 23, 1877, the following resolution was unanimously adopted, viz.: That the circumstances under which the burning of the clothes of small-pox patients, by the direction of this committee, was discontinued, be specially reported to the council forthwith, together with all reports and correspondence connected therewith.' In conformity with which your committee beg leave to report that, on November 23, a letter was received by them from the Governors of Cork Street Hospital, in which they urged that in order effectually to prevent the spread of small-pox, it is necessary to burn the clothes of small-pox patients.' On November 30, 1876, a second letter was received from the Governors, requesting that the clothes of patients then in that hospital should be burned; and on December 7, 1876, a third letter was received, calling attention to the former letters. December 15, the following report was submitted by the consulting sanitary officer: On City Hall, December 22, 1876. GENTLEMEN,-I beg to report that I have inspected of which there are six sets at present. Their values vary the clothes of small-pox patients at Cork Street Hospital, from about 37. to 3s. If the money be given to the friends of the patients, I fear that it will be spent otherwise than for clothes. I beg to recommend that a sum be weekly granted for distribution, through the resident officers, who will purchase clothing and superintend the burning of the clothes. About 12/. would suffice for this week. Those of the dead should be burned, and no compensation need be given. At the Hardwicke Hospital, it would be necessary to refer the whole subject to the Governors on next Thursday. (Signed) E. D. MAPOTher. It was then moved by Councillor Gray, and unanimously resolved: That the consulting sanitary officer be empowered to have the clothes of small-pox patients destroyed, according to his discretion, and paying for or replacing the same where necessary, and reporting from week to week to the committee.' The purport of this resolution was communicated to the Governors of the Hospital, as follows: |