1884.] CIVILIZATION AND ITS WASTES. 279 



Mr. Webb. Yes, sir, there are eels there, plenty, and there 

 may be other kinds in that swamp. There are very large 

 springs breaking out in that swamp, boiling' up from the 

 bottom. 



Mr. Augur. I want to ask Prof. Brewer or Dr. Jenkins if 

 there is any simple means by which the amount of impurity 

 in water can be determined ? 



Prof. Brewer. Unfortunately not. 



Mr. KiRKHAM. I asked Mr. Webb that question about fish 

 because of his statement that he did not believe that the sick- 

 ness and malaria came from the cities and villages. We have 

 a stream in our town that used to be a good trout brook ; it 

 was filled with perch and suckers, and an abundance of fish 

 of all kinds, which were healthy and good. But now fish 

 cannot live there. There are no fish in six miles of that 

 stream which runs through our town, because it is poisoned 

 by the discharges from a city sewer. 



Mr. Webb. Is not the destruction of the fish caused by 

 chemicals ? 



Mr. KiRKHAM. There are no chemicals of any kind that 

 go into it. The death rate of the city of New Britain, as I 

 was told by one of the oldest citizens there who had looked 

 into this matter, has increased from twenty-four in a thousand, 

 fifteen years ago, to over forty last year, since their sewage 

 system was introduced ; and in the town that takes that 

 sewer, which was a noted healthy place twenty-five years ago, 

 and where, as old Dr. Brace said in his fiftieth aniversary 

 sermon, but ten perished out of a thousand in a year, of all 

 ages, the last' six years, the death rate has averaged nineteen 

 in the same number. These facts tell a story that must be 

 explained somehow. 



Mr. Webb. I did not say that sewage running into a 

 stream did not make the water impure. I should not say so, 

 by any means. 



Col. Warner. I would like to ask Prof. Brewer what he 



