CITY SANITATION AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL. !^4l 



purpose of acquiring information on the sewage problem. I found 

 the City of Cleveland more nearly circumstanced like Toronto in that 

 respect than any other place I visited. It has its Cuyahoga River, 

 which is an intensiiicatiou or aggravated form of our Don. Then 

 they have an artificial harbor much less in size than our bay, into 

 which this river with its discharge from twenty sewei'S runs, giving a 

 concenti-ated condition of our own water front. Now, when we con- 

 sider their intake of water is only one mile from the outlet of their 

 harbor, what need have we to fear when we put five miles between our 

 intake of water and the discharge of sewagel The danger in our case 

 would be just one twenty-fifth of theirs. I was curious to know what 

 an analysis of their water would reveal, so procured a copy of their 

 Water Works report. A very comprehensive series of tests had been 

 made on samples taken at distances of | mile, 1 mile, \-h miles and 2 

 miles from the shore, a sample was taken 15 miles from the shore at 

 a depth of 75 feet for a standard of comparison, and the following 

 quotation contains the opinion of the "Water Works trustees:" — " It 

 will be a source of general public satisfaction to know that there is 

 no material difference in the water at the present inlet and at other 

 points, and that the supply now furnished is almost equal in purity 

 to that obtained 15 miles from the shore, and that in but few cities in 

 the country are the people so fortunate in having an abundant supply 

 of pure water and at so little cost." 



To satisfy myself still further I obtained a report of the Medical 

 Health Officer, Dr. Ashman, which I also found to be very complete. 

 It gave a general death rate of 18.78 per 1000, and of diphtheria and 

 typhoid fever of about 14 in 10,000. These statements indicate 

 that Cleveland is a very healthy city notwithstanding the nearness of 

 its intake of city water to the harbor outlet. I notice that the 

 general death rate for the seven cities of Quebec rises to 31 per 1000 

 and that the infantile mortality is almost incredible. Through the 

 kindness of Dr. Canniff I obtained statistics which enabled me to de- 

 duce the general death-rate of Toronto, which I found to be a little 

 over 19 per 1000, and of diphtheria and typhoid fever to be 13 per 

 10,000, so that we stand about par with Cleveland. There is not 

 the shadow of a doubt but that there would be perfect immunity from 

 danger in Toronto with the sewage discharge five miles from the 

 city water intake. With regard to the self-purification of impure 



