272 BOAED OF AGEICULTURE. [Jan., 



works clearer in looks, but it is not pure. I ought to say 

 right here, that a great many persons are misled by this. I 

 have given special attention and study for many years to one 

 point connected with this, from another direction. Where 

 waters are inclined to be a little roily or turbid, a very little 

 sewage clears them of that turbidness. A very little sewage 

 passed into water that is roily will clear it ; I mean, it will 

 make it clearer than it was before ; but that does not make it 

 purer to drink ; it may retain all of its virulence. Some of 

 the most deadly waters that have ever found their way into 

 wells have been of exceeding clearness, sparkling and bright, 

 I will only cite one case, but if you should look through the 

 records of sanitarian literature, you would find that it would 

 take more than this afternoon even to cite the others. I will 

 simply refer to what is known in sanitary literature as the 

 Broad street pump affair. 



Sanitary science, as we know it, is of very modern date. It 

 had its start with the outbreak of cholera in London about 1848. 

 It was in this country in 1849. It was then discovered that 

 cholera was spreading in that city through its drinking-water. 

 Then, with the outbreak of the same disease in 1866, it was 

 more fully investigated, and as the result of the investigations 

 there, the present health laws of Great Britain were enacted, 

 and sanitarian science in the shape which it has now assumed 

 may be said to have begun with tliose cholera outbreaks. In 

 one of those outbreaks there was a sudden explosion of 

 cholera, as they called it. If you could imagine a steam 

 boiler to have blown up in a certain part of the town and 

 scattered its water over a crowd, and here and there, 

 wherever a drop fell upon any man, that man had died of the 

 cholera, it would illustrate what happened in London at that 

 time. In a small district of the city, if I recollect right, 

 over five hundred people died within two weeks. It was 

 found that they lived around a certain pump, known as the 

 Broad street pump. It was found that people had been in 

 the habit of drinking water from this pump. The water was 

 very popular, because it was clear, and bright, and sparkling. 



