in one family, and all the persons who drank the water were constantly
ailing. The third sample was taken from a well where four cases of
typhoid fever had occurred. A thorough search had been made for the
cause of the trouble. The well water had been suspected and was
condemned by the attending physician.
Seventy feet from the wall there was a privy vault overflowing. Another
vault was within twenty-five feet of the well. To the effluvia from
the former was attributed one case of typhoid fever. The stench was so
great at night that not even the windows in the upper stories of the
houses in the neighborhood could be kept open. People living near had
sore throats, malarial fever and diarrhœal disorders.
The fourth sample was obtained from a surface dug well, from which the
inmates of the State Female Reformatory were supplied with drinking
water. Since the first of last August thirty-nine cases of well defined
typhoid fever, and thirteen milder cases of the same disease appeared
in the Reformatory. The attending physician attributed the outbreak
of the fever to the water from the well. After a thorough chemical
examination of the water, the well was condemned and filled up, and the
water supply now comes from a driven well.
It is worthy of remark that the persons attacked by typhoid fever, had
been daily drinking the foul water from the well until the appearance
of the fever; that the immediate surroundings of the well and the
sanitary condition of the building were good, and that no direct cause
of typhoid fever outside of the well could be discovered.
The fifth sample was taken from a well which supplied a family of six
persons with water. Diarrhœal troubles,