KEPORT OF PRESIDENT WILLITS. 25 



The old physical laboratory in the corridor of old College Hall has been 

 removed, so that by opening the slide doors the whole corridor can be used 

 with the chapel, thereby adding to the latter an increased capacity of one- 

 third for public exercises, and largely facilitating the daily college work. 

 Hydrants have been placed at all sewers adjacent to the dormitories and out- 

 houses, so that the daily slops of the students' and club rooms are constantly 

 flushed away. A student is detailed to each^dormitory whose daily duty it is to 

 pick up and rake away all refuse matter that might accumulate in the 

 vicinity, and to sweep out the outhouses, and once a week to mop the latter. 

 The result is that at no time is there an accumulation of decaying or offensive 

 matter to breed disease or annoy the senses. 



THE HEALTH OF THE COLLEGE. 



I speak of these facts only for the reason that since my last report the col- 

 lege has been afflicted with a malarial fever that showed some typhoid char- 

 acteristics, and I desire to place on record the fact that in no degree can it 

 be charged to the want of the ordinary sanitary precautions for which the 

 college authorities may reasonably be held responsible. The illness above 

 noted took us by surprise, as the college had been distinguished for its healthy 

 location. It was manifest that there was some cause for this sudden affliction. 

 While it was true that the illness was not more prevalent than in the villages 

 and cities of the State, still our location was such that we felt that it should 

 be less. An investigation soon demonstrated in a measure the cause. The 

 water for drinking and domestic purposes was obtained only from surface 

 wells, and what with the long months of dry weather and the large increase 

 of students and other people connected with the college, they ran low, and 

 several became dry. This state of things was aggravated by the exceptional 

 number of picnic parties which during the season had occupied the grounds, 

 some numbering as high as 200, who kept the only remaining well in lively 

 use all day. The result was that when night came the water was low and 

 turbid, and the students went thirty rods with their pitchers to a well which 

 had always been pure, and was not in such constant use. This well was found 

 unhealthy, and was at once dismantled. During the year two of our students 

 died, one from the fever and the other from other causes. All the remainder 

 got well, and most of them reported last spring in good health and spirits. 

 But the experience was a grave one, and the situation a source of great 

 anxiety. It was manifest that the water supply was not wholesome and was 

 entirely inadequate to the increasing demand, and that nothing short of 



AN" ARTESIAN WELL AND WATER-WORKS 



would place us beyond a danger that no care, however constant and earnest, 

 could wholly obviate. It might be years again before a like concurrence of 

 causes would bring to us like results, but the fact that we were liable to them 

 at any time was a source of solicitude. An appeal was made to the Legisla- 

 ture last winter, and that body without hesitation gave us $1,000 for an 

 artesian well and 12,000 to extend the water-works'. The well has been 

 bored and at the depth of 343 feet an abuadant supply of wholesome water 

 was obtained, pronounced such by the chemical department after repeated 

 analyses, of a constant temperature of 50^ degrees, and which flows at the 



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