412 RErORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



(i.) Former condition. 



DR. J. H. TAMBLIN testified that he had been acquainted with the region in the vicinity of the 

 reservoir for sixteen or seventeen years, and was familiar with the sanitary conditions of the country; 

 that he knew the place at Stillwater when a hotel was kept by Dunbar, and that the same number of 

 people were entertained there by Dunbar as by the present club ; that prior to the construction of the 

 State dam he knew of no special diseases there, and considered it a perfectly healthful place, and that 

 he was constantly sending his patients there for their health ; and that prior to the building of the 

 dam there was no case of miasmatic poisoning or catarrhal enteritis. 



HON. WILLIAM P. GOODELL'S testimony is to the effect that prior to the building of the dam 

 he did not recollect of any sickness at Stillwater. 



(2.) Condition of hcallli since the hnilding of the reservoir. 



DR. J. H. TAMBLIN testified that the decaying vegetation would, in his opinion, cause 

 disease ; it would cause a recognized type of malarial fever, together with catarrhal difficulties, 

 inflammation of the bowels, or enteritis; that since the building of the dam such diseases have been 

 constant every year ; that while he was there he treated at least twenty patients; that some of the 

 cases were very severe : some were taken sick and carried out of the woods on stretchers ; and that it 

 was necessary to remove them in order for them to convalesce ; that this disease was contracted by 

 breathing contaminated air or drinking contaminated water, and that it could be carried a long 

 distance ; that he had treated patients three miles away from the reservoir ; that the sanitary condition 

 of Loon Lake and Big Burnt Lake would be affected by the reservoir, and that since the building of 

 the reservoir the lands along the river, along Big Burnt Lake aud Loon Lake, are not desirable for 

 camp and cottage purposes from a sanitary view. 



DR. FREDERICK TOWNSEND testified that in the summer of 1893 he was camping near 

 the Chris. Wagner Camp when the water was drawn down, leaving a green scum and bad odor; that 

 there was sickness in his party ; that he was sick about a week with a fever accompanied with 

 diarrhceal difficulties ; the guide was taken sick ; and he should consider it a very unhealthy 

 condition ; that the conditions were favorable for the propagation of disease germs and miasmatic 

 troubles ; that these poisons would extend on either side of the river for several miles ; that it would 

 afiect the sanitary condition of Big Burnt Lake and Loon Lake ; that last year he had planned to camp 

 on the Beaver River below the dam, but was warned off and prevented by the Beaver River Club 

 from camping there ; and was forced to camp at the Old Wagner Camp, and saw the effects where 

 the water had flooded the camp and had been drawn down, and as the water receded mud was left 

 bare, and he was again taken sick, with the same difficulties. 



DR. PAUL VON ZIEROLSHOFEN testified that at one time he was the nearest practicing 

 physician at Stillwater ; and during the years 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894, was frequently called to 

 Stillwater, where he treated from twenty-si.\ to twenty-seven cases, where patients were suffering from 

 miasmatic poisonings, dumb ague and catarrhal enteritis ; that decaying vegetation, together with 

 heat and moisture, would produce this poison, and would extend from one to one and one-half miles 

 outside the reservoir ; and that it would be apt to be carried up to great heights. 



DR. J. W. C.A.NDEE testified that in the summers of 1891 and 1893, disease of an endemic 

 nature broke out; that there were one or two other physicians on the ground besides himself; and that 

 he personally knew of at least fifteen cases. The disease resembled miasmatic poisoning, severe 

 chills, quite high fevers, aching bones and muscles and enteric symptoms, the cause of which was the 

 impounding of the water ; and that in 1893, when he was there, he prescribed for at least one-half 

 dozen cases. 



DR. FLORENCE DONOHUE, President of the State Board of Health, testified that the 

 impounding of the water over the area covered with vegetation would be injurious to health ; that the 

 bare impounding of the water would arrest the natural processes of purification, of oxidation and 

 nitrification ; that the exposure of the banks and shores of a reservoir to the sun, leaving decomposi- 

 tion of organic mattter to take place, would be injurious to health, and that with a strong wind this 

 unhealthy condition would extend a mile to the windward, and would produce fever, agues, and 



