The farm-house, from the well of which was taken the specimen of polluted
water, is situated on a high bluff of land south-east of the village,
and is known by the name of East Mountain. Upon this ridge of land are
situated some of the best farms in town. The soil is rich and deep,
underlying which is a sub-soil of clay, very hard and compact, but
occasionally interrupted by a deposit of sand. I have been told there
were beds of sand in the vicinity of this dwelling-house.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM NO. 2.]
By the diagram sent, you will see that the well is under the L part
of the house. The water is drawn up by means of a windlass in one of
the back rooms. The well itself is some twenty-five feet deep. In the
summer kitchen, not more than three or four feet from the well, you will
notice the sink marked 2 on the diagram, which discharges its water on
the ground by means of an open spout but a few feet from the outside of
the building. At 3, about an equal distance from the well, is a back
door, from which foul water, as on washing-days, and filth of nearly all
descriptions, were usually thrown, which is not saying more than can be
said of back doors to farm-houses in general.
As you step out of this door, a little to your left you will see the
pig-sty, the centre of which cannot be more than fifteen feet from top
of well. The privy marked 4 is entered from the walk leading from the
well-room to the barn-yard, the excrements of which are received upon the
ground. The distance from the door, 7, that opens into the barn-yard,
and the well, is just twenty-four feet by actual measurement. Stepping
out of this door you are in the barn-yard filled with cattle and sheep,
on the further side of which is the barn with its usual manure heap
and decomposing vegetable matter in general. Thus we have the barn,
barn-yard, privy, pig-sty, back door, and sink all in dangerous proximity
to the well, either one of which might contaminate its water, and render
it unfit for use.
It was on the 8th of March, 1883, that I procured the second specimen
of water from this well that I sent you. For over three months prior
to that date the ground had been frozen and covered with snow, with no
thaws during the whole winter severe enough to cause any surface-water.
The winter was what is called a dry one, all the wells in that vicinity
being remarkably low, so that there could be no surface-water finding its
way into the well on that date, and probably had not for months previous:
the influence of the surroundings at that time must have been at the
minimum. If the water is bad under this condition, what must it be soon
after the frost is out, and the well becomes filled with its maximum of
surface-water?
Now the interesting question comes, What has been the effect upon the
health and lives of the family or families occupying this house and using
this water? I am informed that they did not use the water at all times,
under suspicion that it might not be good: still it was used more or less.
Forty-one years ago the place was purchased and occupied by a man then in
the prime of life. He had seven children, some of whom were born before
and some after moving upon the place. The father, mother, and all the
children are now dead, except one.
The date, age, and cause of death, as near as I can find out, are as
follows:
1849, a son, age 18 years; cause, typhoid fever.
1849, a daughter, age 16 years; cause, typhoid fever.
1863, a son, age 28 years; cause, consumption.
1871, mother, age 63 years; cause, gall stones; great sufferer
from sick headache.
1874, a daughter, age 27 years; cause, consumption.
1878, a son, age 37 years; cause, consumption.
1879, a daughter, age 34 years; cause, consumption.
1879, father, age 76 years; cause, old age, feeble a long time.
1883, a son-in-law, age 47 years; cause, bronchial consumption.
This last was the only one of whom I had charge, and it was during one
of my professional visits that I discovered the situation of the well.
One of the first things of which he complained was sore throat and
hoarseness, laryngo-pharyngitis. At the same time he was troubled with
an eruption. I never saw it, but as he described it I should say that it
was erythematous in its nature. If he exercised so as to perspire, or
took hot drinks, it would make its appearance, causing the surface to
itch and feel very uncomfortable.
During the spring and summer of 1882 he was under the care of various
physicians, both regular and irregular, until the first of October of
that year, when he came under my care, at which time he was troubled
with cough and hoarseness, it being with difficulty that he spoke aloud.
The stomach was very irritable, frequently rejecting food, and more
often his medicine. Once when he was in my office for the purpose of
consultation, I inquired in regard to his drinking-water. He told me that
it was “splendid water,” and all right; that he drank a great deal of
it. At various times during the fall and early winter he would seem to
improve, when some imprudence on his part would put him back. Finally he
grew worse, as manifested by failing strength, loss of appetite, and by
coughing and raising more, until his death.
The sputa was very tenacious, and at last was quite thick, and composed
almost entirely of pus. A few weeks before he died I examined his chest
thoroughly. There was no dulness over either lung, and he could fill both
of them equally well. Auscultation revealed very heavy, moist rales.
About five weeks before the death of the father,—that was some time in
January,—I was called to the house to attend his son, a lad six years
of age, with dysentery accompanied with petechial eruption over the
limbs and body. He recovered slowly. In about two weeks two other sons,
aged respectively eight and ten years, came down in the same way with
dysentery and the eruption, causing them to scratch vigorously. The
mother was troubled with the eruption, but no dysentery.