There is no subject of greater interest to the people than that of
health and the best means of obtaining it. Plenty of wholesome food,
good air and pure water constitute the first essentials of right
living. Any thing which contaminates these prime requisites admits a
factor into the problem of life which seriously vitiates its result.
To what extent agents of adulteration have injured the human family
by disease and death we do not know, but the usual estimate made by
sanitarians is, that nearly one-half of the existing diseases might be
abolished, provided that individuals and communities should enter upon
correct modes of living. In the United States over one hundred thousand
persons die annually, and probably one hundred and fifty thousand
persons are constantly sick from causes well known to be preventable.
Dr. Draper says the total number of deaths in Massachusetts during five
years, 1869-73, from all causes was 156,289; of that number the deaths
from zymotic or fermentable diseases comprised 26 per cent.; those from
acute pulmonary diseases were 7 per cent.; and those from phthisis,
17 per cent. So that, if we include all these among the “preventable”
diseases, the deaths from these causes represent one-half the actual
mortality. It is estimated that the productive efficiency of the
average life in this country might be increased 30 per cent.; or up to
the normal amount by the proper observance of health laws. The annual
mortality rate should not exceed 15 per 1,000 in cities under good
sanitary management, but the tables of the National Board of Health
show a greater mortality in almost every city of the country. Zymotic
or preventable diseases are increasing in Indianapolis. From these
diseases 443 deaths occurred in the city during the year 1879—over 32
per cent. more than in 1878—and if such a large number died, it is
fair to calculate that twenty times as many persons were more or less
sick from the same causes. Nearly 33 per cent. of the total deaths of
the city last year were due to zymotic diseases. These facts should
awaken the public to thorough search for the causes at work producing
such a high mortality.
I believe, and it shall be my endeavor to prove, that the increase
of zymotic diseases in the city is due in a great measure to causes
easily preventable. Man, it is true, is born to sorrow; but many of
these sorrows are of his own creation, or are due to his neglect
of established principles. Having determined upon a thorough
investigation, we need only to visit the premises, where typhoid
fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and diseases of this class prevail,
to obtain facts enough to solve the problem. Wherever filth abounds,
whether in the air, the ground, or the water, there will be a fruitful
soil for the propagation of fermentative diseases. To be convinced of
the present and past filthy condition of the city, one should take a
walk through any of the alleys at noonday, and inhale the foul odors
arising constantly from sewers, cess-pools, privies and decaying
animal, vegetable, and excrementitious matters thrown out from kitchens
and stables. An examination of the kitchen and back yard of a house is
sufficient to prove one of two things, either that Biddy is “monarch of
all she surveys,” or that the family need a few practical lessons on
sanitary science. The latter are sure to follow in time.
The increase of zymotic diseases in Indianapolis, is due largely to
soil and water pollution. The conditions of the soil affect our health
through the water we drink and the air we breathe. To effluvia from
the soil, may be attributed, as stated by Parkes, paroxysmal fevers,
typhoid fever, yellow fever, bilious remittent fever, cholera and
dysentery. Waring accepts the theory of the dissemination of typhoid
fever by fecal discharges of the sick, but gives as his opinion that
the disease may be developed by exhalations of decomposing matters in
dung-heaps, pig sties, privy vaults, cellars, cess-pools, drains and
sewers, or it may be due to the presence of the poison deep in the
ground, and its escape in an active condition in ground exhalations.
A cold soil, and a misty, chilly condition of the atmosphere are
caused by large amounts of water in the ground; and persons living
on such soil are disposed to catarrhal complaints, rheumatism and
neuralgia. Dampness of the soil produces malaria and consumption, and
their activity varies with the degree of moisture. The lowering of
the ground water in the malarious districts of Indiana, has greatly
mitigated the paroxysmal fevers which were formerly so prevalent, and
the general healthfulness of the state has been increased by drainage.
The sandy soil underlying Indianapolis retains from 33 to 36 per cent.
of water. A strong clay soil will not retain over 27 per cent. of water.
According to Pettenkofer, Ford and others, an excessive amount of
water in the soil is injurious to health by the effects of dampness.
It favors the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, and the
evolution of unhealthy effluvia. The water is liable to become
polluted, especially when it is the source of supply of water in wells
used for drinking purposes. The soil is so damp in Indianapolis, that
houses built close to the ground are known to be very unhealthy. At
least four-fifths of all the houses in the city are too near the
ground, to insure perfect immunity from dampness, and its blasting
influences to health.
In the construction of dwellings, care should be taken to provide
the most efficient means for excluding dampness from the foundation
walls and basement floors; and the soil should be rendered drier by
underground drainage. Fox says, it is very unwise to allow the soil
close to houses to be defiled by filth; for the fires of a house
creating a force of suction, draw into the house the air contained in
the surrounding soil, as well as of that on which it is built. The
popular impression, that the atmosphere ends where the ground begins,
is a very widely spread delusion. Most soils are more or less porous.
A house built on gravelly soil stands on a foundation composed of a
mixture of two parts of small stones and one part of air. The air may
give place to any gas or to water. Zymotic diseases have been known to
arise from the emanations of soil polluted by excreta, and impurities
from sewers and drains and all other filth. Poisoning by breathing the
gases generated in sewers and cess-pools is not uncommon. In reference
to this point, Dr. Jno. Simon says: “The ferments so far as we know
them, show no power of active diffusion in dry air; but as moisture is
their normal medium, currents of humid air (as from sewers and drains)
can lift them in their full effectiveness, and if into houses or
confined exterior spaces, then with their chief chances of remaining
effective; and ill-ventilated, low-lying localities, if unclean as
regards the removal of their refuse, may especially be expected to have
these ferments present in their common atmosphere as well as of course
teeming in their soil and ground water.”
Indianapolis is in the bottom of a basin, the rim of which rises sixty
or seventy feet all round it, east of White river; in some places as at
Crown Hill to three times that height.
[Illustration]
Let us now inquire into the condition of the soil of the city. We
find that the general direction of the water trend is from northeast
to southwest; that the water level in the wells near the Atlas works
is thirty-five feet above the river level at the city water works;
and that the waterfall is from fifteen to eighteen feet per mile. The
formation of the ground beneath the city is attributed by geologists
to the glacial drift of pre-historic times. From seventy to ninety
feet below the surface the earth is built up of alternate beds of sand
gravel, and clay, and go to show that at some remote period running
water with its leveling and transforming power, aided by the corroding
force of the air, contributed largely to the geological formation which
we find to-day.
After obtaining the distances through these various strata in the
different parts of the city, an average is calculated in the following
order:
Loam, three to four feet; sand and gravel, thirty to forty feet; blue
compact clay (hard-pan), twelve to eighteen feet; sand and gravel, five
to ten feet; soft clay, one to five feet; and blue gravel and boulders
to Devonian limestone, thirty-five to fifty feet. The first stratum of
clay is very hard and tough, and for that reason is called “hard-pan.”
It has an inclination from the northeast to the southwest of about
thirty feet to the mile. The further north and east of White river,
the less distance it is to bed rock. Occasionally below the “hard-pan”
is found a small drift of soft clay, but this is not usual and does
not extend very far in area; often in moving ten feet it is missed.
The first seam of water is usually reached at a depth of seventeen to
twenty-five feet; the second seam at fifty to sixty-five feet; and the
third seam at seventy to ninety feet.
These various strata of water are all what is called “hard water.”
Prof. E. T. Cox states that “the first seam contains the largest amount
of mineral water, principally calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate,
chlorides and ferrous sulphate. The amount of chlorine is so large,
that its presence is due in a great measure to sewage contaminations.
The second seam of water contains but little chlorides, but has about
the same amount of calcic and magnesic carbonates as the first. It is a
good potable water when properly protected from contaminations from the
upper seam. The third seam of water is also a hard water, that is, its
salts will decompose a portion of soap and form a curd; but it contains
less carbonates and more sulphates of the alkaline earths, lime and
magnesia.” Inasmuch as the object of this paper, is to show to what
extent the soil and water of Indianapolis are affected by pollution and
the influence such pollution has on health, it is proper to state as
nearly as possible, the sources from which the contamination arises. By
the assistance of the former civil engineer of the city, the following
estimate was made:
Area of Indianapolis (not including ground unimproved) 5,000 acres.
Within the city limits there are:
Surface dug wells 15,000
Driven wells 5,000
Open privy vaults 22,000
Privy vaults filled up 13,000
Cess-pools 10,000
Cess-pools filled up 5,000
The builders of the city state, that in the business portion of the
city, it is not uncommon to discover from three to a half dozen old
privy vaults, in making a single excavation for an ordinary building.
According to the above estimate which is considered very low, 50,000
privy vaults and cess-pools are constantly filling the soil with deadly
poisons, and polluting the water of at least 15,000 surface dug wells,
which furnish drinking water to 50,000 people.
Not more than 6,000 persons drink water from the city water works, and
about 20,000 persons use water from driven wells and cisterns. It is
a rule well established by eastern boards of health, that a dug well
drains a circular area with a radius equal to twice the distance of the
depth of the well. It has been ascertained, that a very large number of
the wells of the city are situated within an average distance of less
than thirty feet of cess-pools and privy vaults, while a great many are
distant from them not over ten feet. Most wells are dug simply with
the view of obtaining water and of having it as convenient to hand as
possible; the cess-pools are dug similarly, with a view to convenience
except that the demand here is that the liquid contents shall readily
drain away. Provided the well furnishes an abundance of water, and the
cess-pool allows the liquid refuse to soak away, and on this account,
seldom requires cleaning out, there is little concern as to what goes
on unobserved beneath the surface of the ground. In the course of time
the well water is discovered to be impure, after sickness, and perhaps
death, have followed its use.
Wells situated on street corners in close proximity to the catch basin
of the sewers, are extremely liable to pollution from leakage from the
foul gutters and seepage from the catch basins.
A notable outbreak of typhoid fever occurred in Louisville, in the
autumn of 1875, from the use of wellwater contaminated by a privy in an
adjoining school yard. The water was found to be impure, and the well
was condemned. “In the summer of 1878 some forty persons in Rochester
whose supply of drinking water was derived from a certain well, were
taken sick with typhoid fever and other zymotic diseases.” The health
officers closed the well and the people got water from other sources.
They began to recover immediately.
“All authorities agree that any well situated within a few feet of a
cess-pool or sewer should be regarded with grave suspicion, for the
intervening soil may become overdone with filth at any moment, and
cease to act as an efficient filter of the polluted water, and allow
organic matter to enter the well; or animal filth may be washed into
the well at any time by a hard rain.”
A great many citizens of Indianapolis are drinking water exclusively
from cisterns. It is difficult to estimate the number of cisterns
within the city limits; but a great deal may be said in regard to the
general unwholesomeness of the water they contain. Rain water contains
a small proportion of chlorine, the amount varying with the condition
of the atmosphere, and the purity of the shedding surface.
When pure rain falls upon a roof it carries down with it all the
impurities accumulated there during dry weather; these soon putrify in
the cistern, and infect the water.
The majority of the cisterns in the city are faulty in some
particular—either proper care was not exercised in their construction,
or the necessary repairs were not made in due time—and they are
found to be seeping, or leaky. Sufficient attention is not given to
keeping the cisterns well closed, and the result is that filth in large
quantities is to be found on emptying them. During my examinations I
have met with many cistern waters in the city so polluted by sewage
infiltration, that an immediate interdict on their use appeared to be
called for. Owing to the impurity of the soil, sewage matter finds its
way into hundreds of cisterns, and contaminates the water. Many of our
cisterns contain water rank with vegetable or animal impurity, and the
contents of the greater portion of these are not above suspicion. Some
of them are neither more or less than shallow wells, receiving more of
their contents by percolation than by inflow above.
Last December 458 cisterns in Memphis, Tenn., were examined with the
following result: Sound, 209; seeping, eighty-two; and undoubtedly
leaking, 167. In the total number, there were 249 condemned as unfit
for use. To what extent these leaky cisterns contributed to the
epidemic of yellow fever we cannot tell. The probability of sewage
contamination in each instance was strong.
In the year of 1879 there were seventy-eight deaths from typhoid and
typho-malarial fevers in Indianapolis. It may be stated as a probable
fact, that our siege of fevers in 1879 originated and was afterward
propagated in polluted drinking water, and ill-ventilated apartments
poisoned by sewer gases, or in close proximity to foul and overflowing
water closets and cess-pools. Forty-three per cent. of the total deaths
in the city in 1879 were deaths of children under five years of age.
Among the general causes of the high death rate of infants, may be
mentioned poverty and ignorance. These two conditions existing in the
parents, are great enemies of the public health and are two important
factors which go to make up this startling infantile mortality. But
it must be conceded that typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
measles, hooping cough and diarrhœal diseases have been endemic in our
midst as the result of foul air and polluted water. Deaths from these
causes occur more or less at all ages, but distinctively more among
children. The influence of filth causes the infants and young children
to die at twice, or thrice, or four times their fair standard rate of
mortality; and this disproportion seems to mark the young lives as
finer tests of soil and water pollution than are the acclimated adults.
The board of health of Indianapolis report that hundreds of cellars
in this city are full, or partly full of water, the entire year; and
that the increase of zymotic diseases is due largely to wet and damp
cellars, as well as to the long continued and general practice of
covering up foul privy vaults, after they have become full, to save the
expense of removing the contents.
Being thoroughly impressed with the facts above enumerated, I commenced
to make investigations. I employed a competent chemist, Mr. Jno. Hurty,
to make sanitary examinations of water, and assist me in the work.
In the collection of samples of water, special care was exercised
in regard to cleanliness and to avoid introducing any errors into
our examinations. Below I give a tabular statement of the analyses
of waters taken from surface dug wells in the city. Excepting the
permanganate of potash test, the quantities are in one litre (22-100ths
of an imperial gallon).
=======================================================================
| | MATTER,| | PERMAN-| ALBUM- | FREE |
Sample| TOTAL | ORGANIC| CHLOR- | GANATE | INOID |AMMONIA.| REMARKS.
| SOLIDS.| & | INE. | TEST. |AMMONIA.| |
| | VOLA- | | | | |
| | TILE. | | | | |
-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------
|_Gramme_|_Gramme_|_Gramme_| _Drops_|_Gramme_|_Gramme_|
1. | 0.81 | .09 | .11 | 30 |.0024 | ???? |Very bad.
2. | 1.061 | .179 | .06 | 24 |.00015 | .00009 |Suspicious.
3. | 1.26 | .29 | .115 | 38 | ???? | ???? |Very bad.
4. | 0.94 | .131 | .093 | 22 | ???? | ???? |Bad.
5. | 0.89 | .055 | .032 | 11 |.00009 | .00001 |Suspicious.
6. | 0.964 | .098 | .08 | 15 |.00011 | .00001 |Suspicious.
7. | 0.798 | .178 | .104 | 28 |.00089 | .00005 |Very bad.
8. | 0.37 | .025 | .049 | 12 |.0003 | .0004 |Suspicious.
=======================================================================
NOTE: ???? means not obtained.
In regard to the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of water, Watt’s
Dictionary of Chemistry gives the following: “Water suitable for
economical, technical or culinary purposes should not contain of solid
constituents to exceed five-tenths of a gramme to one gramme per litre.
Water containing one-tenth gramme per litre of organic matter is unfit
for culinary purposes or drinking. Wholesome water should not contain
of organic matter more than five-one thousanth to one one-hundredth
gramme per liter. As a rule, water containing as much as one
one-hundredth of a gramme of chlorine per litre may be suspected of
being contaminated with drainage. Whenever in water the oxygen amounts
to less than one-third of the nitrogen, and the water also causes a
considerable reduction of permanganate of potash, the presence of
decomposing organic substance is probable. The capability of water to
remain for some days at a temperature of about 22°C, without undergoing
decomposition is of great importance in reference to the question of
wholesomeness.”
The permanganate of potash test given above was as follows: The test
solution was distilled water, one litre, and permanganate of potash,
one gramme. Of this solution, the number of drops required to render
fifty cubic centimetres of the water under examination permanently
red, were reported. It should be understood that the same quantity of
distilled water required but eight drops of the test solution to become
permanently red.
The first sample of water was taken from a well where fourteen persons
were simultaneously attacked in December last by typho-malarial and
diarrhœal diseases. All had been drinking water from this well, and
had it not been for the timely help of the physician who condemned the
water.