CONTAMINATION OF WATER. 179 



ment in removing the reef, and the obstructions to navigation 

 in the river above the city of Newark, have greatly facili- 

 tated this flow ; and there can now be no question but that 

 the supply of each city is contaminated by this sewage. 

 The joint commission of Newark and Jersey City employed 

 an eminent chemist to analyze the waters of the Passaic as 

 furnished the two cities. We quote so much of his report 

 treating of sewage pollution of rivers as applies forcibly to 

 our subject, and the sanitary point now involved : " That 

 class of scientists who study microscopic fungi, mycologists 

 (in common with many distinguished scientific physicians), 

 are now settling down to the belief that most epidemic and 

 epizootic diseases are accompanied (as causes, not merely as 

 effects) by certain fungoid growths: in other words, that 

 these diseases are produced by vegetable parasites. When 

 these fungi take root in live animal tissues, they develop 

 into abnormal and monstrous forms, which have not been 

 recognized until lately ; but it is now known that the spores 

 discharged (by millions of millions it may be) with the ex- 

 creta, when cultivated outside the body, come back again to 

 their normal forms, and the fungi are recognizable. Thus in 

 common dysentery and cholera-morbus, the spores, when 

 replanted, produce a common fungoid parasite of wheat; 

 while, during the fearful Asiatic cholera, the spores produced 

 a parasite of the East-India rice-plant. These facts (if they 

 must be admitted as such, which seems inevitable) are sug- 

 gestive with regard to sewage contamination of rivers. One 

 case of cholera brought to Paterson, or any of the towns 

 lying on the upper Passaic, might fill the whole river with 

 the living seeds of the pestilence. A like propagation 

 would take place from Newark throughout Jersey City and 

 Hoboken, and even throughout Newark itself. I am aware 

 that these are appalling considerations, and may be rejected 

 by some as contingencies too remote and dreadful to be pos- 

 sible. But human experience, alas ! will not countenance 

 any such puerile view as this. We must stare these horrors 

 sternly in the face, bring all our science to bear, and study 

 prevention, rather than wait till called upon to endure the 

 evil when it shall have passed beyond our cure." 



It is not only river-water that is contaminated b}^ the sew- 

 age of the cities; but the wells, from which many of the 



