Poets have sung of the “babbling brooks” and the “mountain springs” with
their “silver cascades.” Painters have sketched
“the placid stream,
Reflecting back the mirrored beam,”
in many a sequestered nook, where the beauty of the scene gave to the
soul its grandest appreciation of nature’s handiwork; but the poet’s
song and the painter’s canvas are too often the false airs and the
tinsel drapery of Momus—fun and folly. But poets and painters live
in a realm uncongenial to the startling facts of modern chemistry.
Virgil would undoubtedly have been as ready to have believed that H₂O
represented a glass of milk, as that it was the equivalent of pure water;
while, if Raphael had been told that the pool of Bethesda was abundant
with “albuminoid ammonia,” he might innocently have believed it to be
“something good to eat.”
Tradition and popular education have taken wings in a tangent direction
from many of the fundamental principles of a natural existence, and,
while freighting the popular mind with its bulky chaff, sparsely grained,
they seldom recognize the revelations of science. The plot of some
well drawn novel, or the fascinating performances of its hero, rest
unforgotten in the embrace of memory,—are sought after, cherished, and
remembered in all and by all ages. Science as yet is but little courted,
much less wedded to the popular taste, and the stubbornness of facts
is in direct ratio to the inflexibility of the public mind. Science,
however, is not always of one hue. It is full of attractions and alluring
fascinations. It needs only to be clothed in well cut and fashionable
garments, and properly and politely introduced, to receive universal
recognition and popular applause. This is especially true of the science
of sanitation, because it is more closely allied to the vital interests
of every community and every family than all others, and, through the
simplicity of its primary principles, can be realized and understood by
all.
Pure water is essential to the health and comfort of every community:
there is no argument to the contrary. How such a _desideratum_ can
be acquired and maintained is a problem which requires the closest
application of science, as well as mechanical and engineering skill. The
question, whenever and wherever applied, becomes an isolated reality,
and the solution, instead of being based upon established formulas
or analogy, is almost wholly dependent upon the individual facts and
conditions connected therewith.
The aspect of the question a century hence will be very different from
what it is to-day, even as in its present bearings it differs from
the time when the woodman’s axe was the only sound of industry that
echoed through the sleeping valleys and over the watchful hills of New
Hampshire. In that day the hardy pioneer quenched his thirst by the
side of any stream or spring with water as pure as earth could give.
He thought not to glance up the stream to see if it was spanned by a
family vault, or flanked by a barn-yard. Likewise, if he partook from
the bubbling spring or the primitive well, he never imagined a crystal
of urea came up in the tiny fountains of sand at its bottom, or that the
sparkle of the water was the carbonic acid of a sink drain; for around
him were no such dangers. But civilization (in many respects a misnomer)
came on, and brought with her more evils than one,—seduced the virginity
of nature, and begot a host of illegitimate products and conditions.
Into her very veins—the streams and rivers—have been injected the effete
products of waste and decay; and to-day her very gifts, poisoned by men,
bring pain, poverty, tears, and death into many households.
We have all, no doubt, traced some cases of the zymotic order to
polluted water, with evidence that left no doubt as to the correctness of
our conclusions. As to how far such influences extend in the causation of
disease is undetermined, but I believe it extends far beyond the category
of acute zymotic diseases.
What of the great invalid corp that register their physical afflictions
under the comprehensive term “poor health,” and who seem to have no
specific disease, either acute or chronic? What demon has laid so
oppressive a burden upon the nerve centres that half of life’s function
is smothered, and the physical energies nearly blotted out? I believe
that contaminated water is one of the prime factors in this unfortunate
and distressing aggregate. We have often traced typhoid fever, dysentery,
and other diseases to a polluted well or spring; but the cause of
insidious decay, progressive pallor, softening muscles, wasting strength,
and slow enervation is not so readily found nor so zealously sought
after. That contaminated water should produce such results, associated
perhaps with other unsanitary surroundings, there can be no argument to
disprove. A close study of the subject for the past two years has led me
to believe that polluted wells are a most prolific source of sickness and
death throughout the state. I believe the medical profession is not yet
so thoroughly aroused upon this subject as the facts demand, and that if
the physicians of the state should carefully investigate the question
of water pollution, the result would be one of wide-spread alarm at the
ravages it is producing.
By far the most dangerous source of water supply is the well, because
of its close proximity to dwellings. If the surroundings of a well are
not free from all impurities and waste, we have no right to expect pure
water, and an attack of typhoid fever, dysentery, or kindred diseases
should not in the least astonish us. _Conditions which endanger our wells
are the rule and not the exception, both in the sparsely settled country
and in the city._
In a speech before the Central N. Y. Medical Association in 1875, Dr.
Harvey Jewett said,—
“We are often asked, In what way does the water of our wells, in farming
communities especially, and in our larger villages, become impure?
It comes bubbling up from the deep fountains, fresh, cold, pure, and
clear as the crystal, and often gives no indication by taste or smell
of containing impurities. How often do we see the waste water from
our kitchens thrown out upon the ground year after year, until the
soil is saturated thereby? Then, again, the continuity of sink-drains,
cess-pools, and privy vaults to our wells is sufficient to saturate the
earth with their poisonous, disease-producing elements. It is through
the agency of this apparently _pure water_, constantly, insidiously
introducing these subtle elements into the human organism, that the
fountains of life are poisoned and disease generated. In large towns and
thickly populated streets, with slovenly domestics, the whole surface
becomes saturated with the waste water, and in wet seasons the well,
being the only artificial drainage, receives the drippings, converting
it into a cess-pool of filth. I have known instances where the waste
water from the sink-drain ran directly into the well, until the horrible
stench compelled an investigation and a remedy. Instances of this kind
are by no means rare, where a direct communication from the sink to the
well is found to exist. With some families in the country the whole waste
water of the household is thrown out upon the ground, until the entire
surface soil is saturated like a sponge with the elements of disease. The
popular but erroneous idea, that filling in earth upon a water-saturated
soil removes the necessity of deep drainage, should be exploded from
the minds of the people, and the great central fact set forth, that
no water-saturated soil is fit for human habitation, and that a large
proportion of unhealthfulness and human ailments can be traced directly
or indirectly to this influence.”
I have had forwarded to me during the past year many samples of well
water from different sections of the state for examination, and _over
ninety-five per cent. were contaminated_. In many instances no particular
suspicion existed that the wells were polluted, so “sweet and sparkling”
was the water. With the exception of a few wells in this city, the
samples came from the smaller villages and isolated farm-houses. I
suspect, and my experience is in accord with the idea, that the most
dangerous wells are to be found at the latter, because such a well is
subjected not only to the unsanitary influences of the household, but
of the barns, cattle-yards, hennery, pig-sty, etc. No one can reasonably
presume that a well situated in close proximity to such surroundings
can long remain pure, except that its altitude is such as to render
contamination impossible, which is rarely the case. It should be borne
in mind that a well is in itself a system of drainage for a given area
of the earth, which area is dependent upon the depth of the well and the
character of the soil. The accepted formula is, that it drains a portion
of soil represented by an inverted cone, the base of which equals in
diameter the depth of the well. Thus, the well _must_ drain a certain
amount of soil or earth, and unless this certain amount is kept clean
and uncontaminated, the well _must become polluted_. It should not be
forgotten that this described cone of soil is the _minimum_ amount that
a well can drain, while with favorable conditions the maximum area is
almost unlimited. A stratum of clay or other impervious substance, or
fissures in the rock formation, may act as the carrier of a little stream
or vein of polluted water till it reaches the well, and the source of
pollution may be a long distance away.
The sketch which is here reproduced from the last report of the State
Board of Health vividly illustrates the way in which a well is often
polluted.
[Illustration]
The double lines 1 and 2 represent the angle which the well drains. The
slightly curved lines 3 and 4 represent the water line in the ground,
the constant use of the well depressing this line below a level in the
immediate vicinity of the well. The lines radiating from the cess-pool
and vault illustrate the cause of said pollution, and consequently
contamination of the water in the well. This sketch is in no way
overdrawn: I have seen many wells apparently situated in precisely the
same way. If somewhere in a near and convenient location to this well, as
shown above, were placed a barn-yard and a pig-sty in addition to what we
now see, it would represent the exact condition of many of our farmers’
wells. Yet the proprietor of this “best well in town” wonders why his
doctor’s bills are so large! He bows “to the will of God” when cholera
infantum takes the life of his little child, when his own ignorance or
cupidity is the destroyer. How long shall the Almighty be charged with
crimes that come alone from the ignorance, carelessness, neglect, and
conceit of men?
I propose to give a few illustrations of water pollution that are of a
very marked character. The following diagram is that of a hotel in one
of the thriving towns in this state, and the facts connected therewith I
obtained from a reliable physician under the promise of not giving to
the public the locality or his name. I have seen the hotel myself, and
assure you that the location was as represented.
A case of typhoid fever occurred the past season (1882) in the bed-room
near the privy (see diagram No. 1). All the discharges from this patient
were thrown into the vault without being disinfected. This vault was
located about _fifteen feet from the well_ which supplied this house.
Result: _Fourteen cases of typhoid fever, with one death, from the use of
this water for drinking purposes_.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM NO. 1.]
The following description and history of a well in Newport (although I
published the same in the last report of the State Board of Health) is of
such a remarkable character that it will bear republication.
The attention of Dr. D. M. Currier was directed to this well in the
investigation of the cause of sickness in the family that used this
water, and the analysis which is given of the water was made by Prof.
Edmund R. Angell of Derry.