Chapter 3

Closterium Acerosum.

Glaucoma scintillans.aMonas crepusculum.bMonas punctum.

Glaucoma scintillans.

aMonas crepusculum.bMonas punctum.

The residue, organic matter, chlorine, nitric acid anhyd, and ammonia were estimated in the water received June 23d. The calcium and magnesium were estimated in the water received June 29, 1880.”

Although much has lately been said regarding impure water and the startling mortality of Indianapolis, there are a great many people who persistently refuse to accept the facts and would rather submit to a large death rate than to “clean up” or go to the necessary expense of obtaining good water. The complaint is often made that doctors do not discharge their duties in warning the people against the dangers of sickness. The fact is that the medical profession gives enough wholesome advice to the public, but very few persons make practical use of the information kindly given.

I commenced last January a series of soil and water investigations. A partial report of my investigations was published in the IndianapolisNews, May 25 and July 13, 1880, and the IndianapolisSaturday Herald, June 5, 1880. Since that time with the assistance of the best chemists I have zealously prosecuted the work.

It is not an exaggeration to say that no dug well within a mile of Circle street, can be depended upon for a continuous supply of good water. The water furnished to the people by the water works company is no better than the water from the average dug well. Water from deep driven wells is the best well water we have.

I found the alleys, by-ways, back yards and stables all through the city in a very filthy condition. Privy vaults have been dug without being cemented, and no care whatever has been taken to keep them clean.

The drainage of the city is very defective. It is only along a few of the principal streets that sewers have been constructed, and the greater portion of the city has no drainage at all. It is a very common thing to find standing water and large mud holes in every direction through the city. It is a notable fact that the water level in many cellars corresponds with the water level of dug wells and privy vaults adjacent. Is it any wonder that infant mortality is so great in the city?

If “infants of one year and under drink but little water,” they do breathe in this city the deadly gases developed by the action of the hot sun on decaying organic and vegetable matters, and the effluvia arising constantly from overflowing privy vaults and cess-pools.Sickness is sure to follow and death may abruptly terminate the young life. According to the report of the Board of Health the deaths in this city have been since January 1, 1876, as follows:

Assuming that the population has been 75,125, the annual death rate would be:

The average would be 20.5 per 1,000 annually which is at least six above what it should be.

Herewith I give atable of recent sanitary analysesof our city well and cistern waters, which startlingly outline the impending dangers and serve as texts for many cases of ill health and death already met by those who have drank the waters.

The first and second samples were taken from two wells in the rear of a block having about twenty occupants. An inspection of the back yard and alley showed an immense amount of filth. There was no sewer to carry away slop or excrementitious matters. A large privy vault was in the rear of the block. There was one well north and another south of the vault, and about twenty feet from it. These wells supplied the water to the occupants of the block. Six cases of scarlet fever were there developed and three of them died. The other persons in the block were constantly ailing. One of the leading physicians of the city attributed the outbreak of the fever to the bad surroundings and the impure water.

The third sample was taken from a well on East Walnut street. The family using the water were more or less sick all the time. Languor, loss of appetite and spirits, sleeplessness, or nightmare, morning diarrhœa, headache and nausea, one or all, continually annoyed those drinking the water. The privy vault, twelve feet deep was forty feet northeast of the well.

The fourth sample was obtained from a well on North Tennessee street. Throat affections, fevers, diarrhœas, headaches with malaise, etc., made up the list of the complaints of the family using the water.

The fifth sample came from a well on North Alabama street. During the last three months, among those who drank the water there were three who had scarlet fever—one of whom died. And so on similar reports can be made of the other samples, except those marked “good” or “excellent.”

SANITARY ANALYSIS OF WELL WATERS.

It is very surprising to me that many people are so ignorant in regard to impure water and its deleterious effect on health. I have met with “would be” highly educated persons who have regarded, and do regard any agitation of this subject, as of little value to the public, and as very damaging to the fair fame of the city, and for that reason to be at all hazards covered up and kept secret.

They also express the thought that every kind of water is filled with microscopic creatures, and that a small amount of filth or dirt in drinking water does no special harm to anyone. All this is the opposite of the facts. Prof. Barnard, of Cornell University, says: “Pure water is not inhabited by organisms; on the contrary stagnant water or impurewater alone affords them subsistence. They hasten the destruction of dead animal and vegetable matters the waters may contain, causing for the time being an infusion or fermentation.”

Macdonald states that “mineral particles may affect health on account of their mechanical action, as for example when mineral silt or clay causes diarrhœa. Dead animal and vegetable substances may have more important effects, as when suspended fecal matter produces irritation of the whole alimentary tract. On the other hand, living things, such as the ova of entozoa, the nematoid worms and small leeches may give rise at once to certain grave disorders, or algæ may act on sulphates and disengage sulphuretted hydrogen.”

Pure water is one of God’s best gifts to man, and if that is allowed to be adulterated the impairment of our health and the destruction of our happiness is sure to follow.

In the samples of dug well waters which have recently been analyzed, the following animalculæ in addition to those given above were found by the use of the different powers of the microscope:

Megalotrocha flavicans.Glossiphonia bioculata.Vibrio.

Megalotrocha flavicans.

Glossiphonia bioculata.

Vibrio.

Anguillula fluviatilis.Anguillula.Anguillula aceti.

Vorticellina.Bacteria.

Vorticellina.

Bacteria.

Rotifera vulgaris.

Cyclops quadricornis.Ophrydium versatile.Halteria grandinella.

Cyclops quadricornis.

Ophrydium versatile.

Halteria grandinella.

Alona quadrangularis.Stentor coerulleus.Pluroxus trigonellus.

Alona quadrangularis.

Stentor coerulleus.

Pluroxus trigonellus.

Cypris tristriata.Candona reptans.Cythere inopinator.

Cypris tristriata.

Candona reptans.

Cythere inopinator.

At Indianapolis we have on the Board of Health three earnest and capable physicians who thoroughly understand the present necessities and stand ready to enforce all laws pertaining to public health; but our laws on hygiene are very inefficient, and the power and usefulness of the board are unwisely limited; therefore the board can do little towards averting the calamity already upon us. The Board of Health need more money, more men and the largest liberty of action.

We shall never have a healthy city until the health department is advanced to the position it deserves. We need a vigorous public sentiment in favor of cleanliness and hygienic measures. The best thought and energies of physicians and scientists everywhere should be directed to questions pertaining to water supply, sewerage and garbage of cities, and if necessary to secure proper legislation, the people must arise in their might and compel timid and shortsighted rulers to give better laws on sanitary matters and more money to make the laws effective.

Transcriber’s Notes:Typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Typographical errors have been silently corrected.

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