SEWAGE AT THE SEA-SIDE. 627 



erecting ventilators, consisting of vertical wooden pipes, about twelve 

 feet in height. These chimneys, placed upon sites chosen apparently 

 without any attention to vertical or horizontal curves in the system, 

 gave forth such fearful smells that at times the beach in their vicinity 

 was unendurable. One near the principal promenade was abolished 

 upon the insistance of hotel proprietors. 



This failure added one more to the list of futile experiments which 

 have been made with tall chimneys, having for their purpose the crea- 

 tion of a strong draught from the sewer. Tried in England, they are 

 said never to have worked satisfactorily. 



The placing such ventilators, as well as sewers, in a sandy soil, is 

 always a hazardous experiment. If the principal streets are unpaved, 

 surface-sand is liable to fill the sewer and choke it. And paving will 

 not prevent silting up where there is an insufficient fall to allow hy- 

 drostatic pressure to force out incoming waves and tides. When 

 egress of sewer-contents is thus checked, " cela va sans dire" the air 

 is filled with a most dissrustinof stench. 



Unhealthy as this contaminated air is, sea-side visitors incur a more 

 common danger in the pollution of water by sewage. This poisoning 

 is done in many ways by close proximity of wells to sewer-drains, 

 and by flood-water from rain-storms, which, instead of being utilized, 

 is allowed to flow off along the gutters, sidewalks, and roadways. 

 Across level lands, down through porous sand, this water sinks un- 

 checked into the soil, carrying with it all the filth washed from streets 

 teeming with human life during the hottest months of the year. 



Civilization's barbarism makes this the more dangerous through 

 the custom of crowding pig-sties, cow and stable yards, cess-pools, 

 and all dirt-receptacles close to springs, wells, and other sources of 

 drinking-water. 



Little or no attention is paid to this dirty practice, on account of 

 the popular belief that filtration through the sand purifies water of 

 the poisonous principles contained in sewage-matter. This idea has 

 been disproved by experiments of the United States Geological Survey 

 in 1881. Results were then ascertained which showed very clearly 

 that sand interposes absolutely no barrier between wells and the bac- 

 terial infection from cess-pools and privies lying even at great dis- 

 tances in the lower wet stratum of sand. Professor R. Pumpelly, who 

 conducted the survey, says that filtration of sewage-water, through a 

 great many feet even of sand as well as gravel, fails to free it of its 

 organic impurities and the germs of disease. 



In consequence of general ignorance of this fact, even when water 

 is sufficiently impregnated with impurities to have acquired a foul 

 taste, the mass of people will drink it without observation ; or only 

 notice it so far as to remark that " good water is never found at the 

 sea-side." The majority drank without hesitation at Long Branch, or 

 simply adulterated the water with wine or brandy, even after inves- 



