52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



while the ground is frozen, the greater part, at least, will percolate into 

 the earth, owing to the higher temperature of the sewage and the heat 

 disengaged by continued fermentation, and so be out of harm's way be- 

 fore the advent of the thaws and rains of spring. It has been proved 

 by experiments in Maine, with the thermometer at 0° Fahr., that the 

 sewage disappears soon after it is applied. It would be safer, no doubt, 

 but the " brown scum," which, it is said, remains on the surface, w^ould 

 be thrown down by the spring rains, and other poisonous matter would 

 follow as soon as the plough broke the surface. The danger might, 

 perhaps, be diminished, as in the case of dilution in running water — 

 nothing more. 



Too much stress cannot be laid on the death lurking in all manner 

 of human excreta, especially those of the sick. Dr. Folsom, the Secretary 

 of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, and one of the first sanitary 

 authorities, says : " In no case is it entirely safe to drink water which 

 has once been contaminated with human excreta containing the germs 

 of disease, unless it has been exposed-to a suflSciently high temperature 

 or has stood long enough for these ' germs ' to become inert. How long 

 this time must be, we do not yet know." And again he says that, 

 " under certain conditions, human excrementitious matter in certain 

 diseases is almost certain poison, producing the parent-disease in great 

 numbers of cases of those exposed to it, with a degree of virulence pro- 

 portional to its concentration." 



The cases on record sustaining this are numerous ; two very strik- 

 ing ones must suffice here : 



Colonel George E. Waring, Jr., in his " Sanitary Drainage of Houses 

 and Towns," relates the case of an outbreak of " filth-fever " in Over- 

 Darwin, England, a few years ago. " The first case," he says, " was an 

 important one, occurring in a house some distance from the town. The 

 patient had contracted the disease, came home, and died with it. . . . 

 The drain of the closet used by this patient emptied itself through the 

 irrigating channels of a neighboring field. The water-main of this 

 town passed through this field, and, although special precautions had 

 been taken to prevent any infiltration of sewage into the main, it was 

 found that the concrete had sprung a leak, and allowed the contents of 

 the drain to be sucked freely into the water-jDipe. The poison was 

 regularly thrown down the drain, and as regularly passed into the 

 water-main of the town. . . . Within a short period 2,035 people were 

 attacked, and 104 died." 



The "Massachusetts State Board of Health Report for 1877" re- 

 cords an epidemic of typhoid fever which occurred at Eagley, in England, 

 in 1876. The report says : " A certain small brook had been used by 

 the operatives of a mill, so that ' large quantities of fecal matter ' were 

 found on its banks and in its bed. It was known, too, that one of the 

 workmen was ill (it was thought that there was a possibility of the dis- 

 ease being typhoid fever). This brook had formerly been used, two 



