November 14, 1895" 



NATURE 



39 



As a contribution to the history of typhoid fever epidemics, we 

 ly welcome the able report of some outbreaks of this 

 in Massachusetts, made by, as well as under the direction 

 Prof. W. T. Sedgwick. 

 The work l)erore us was included, in the first instance, in the 

 wenty-fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of 

 chusetts, but has been, and we think wisely, issued also 

 a separate pamphlet. No less than nine outbreaks of typhoid 

 were investigated, but perhaps the most interesting and 

 portant is that which occurred in Lowell, one of the largest 

 les in the Merrimack Valley, and depending mainly for its 

 tor supply on the Merrimack River. Public attention was first 

 lied in December 1890 to the serious character of the epidemic 

 typhoid fever in the city, when it became known that in the 

 eding month 122 cases had been reported, and twenty-eight 

 eaths from this disease had taken place. After a long and 

 exhaustive investigation, the river water supply became suspected 

 of being the vehicle of the specific infection to which the epidemic 

 ust be attributed. Prof Sedgwick set to work, therefore, to 

 d if there had been any special or unusual infection of the 

 •er ahore Lowell, and the discovery was made that an out- 

 k of typhoid fever, "such as had not been known for forty 

 s," had occurred during the previous August, September, 

 October in a small village only three miles above Lowell, 

 situated on a small stream running into the Merrimack 

 ver. Four at least of the cases of typhoid fever were proved 

 have directly infected this small brook, which joins the river 

 only two and a half miles above the intake of the Lowell Water- 

 works. Dr. Sedgwick states in his report that " the Merrimack 

 River is regularly polluted above Lowell, not only by Stony 

 Hiook, but very extensively by the large cities of Nashua, 

 Manchester, Concord, and Fitchburg, the sewers of all of which 

 pour their raw contents directly into the Merrimack River or the 

 Nashua. This they had been doing for months and years ; and 

 to the fact that Lowell has been willing to drink this regularly 

 l>olluted water, totally nnptirified by filtration, is chargeable the 

 fact that typhoid fever has annually been excessive in that city. 

 But the conditions were no worse than usual in these cities in 

 September and October 1890. There was, however, as has 

 been shown, an infection of a small and seemingly insignificant 

 feeder of the Merrimack only two and a half miles above the 

 intake of the Lowell Water Works, such as is not known to have 

 occurred there for forty years." With respect to the chemical 

 and bacterial examinations of the water, Dr. Sedgwick writes as 

 follows :— 



"These were made in the hope of discovering some un- 

 usual condition of the river, or of possibly detecting the Eberth 

 bacillus itself. But, as usually happens in typhoid fever 

 epidemics, the worst was over before the examinations began. 

 The chemical examinations showed nothing that was not already 

 known. The bacterial analyses revealed a noteworthy excess 

 of Bacillus coli comnnmis, confirming the chemical evidence of 

 the presence of sewage in the city water as drawn from the river, 

 but no Eberth bacilli were found." 



We do not, however, attach perhaps the same importance as 

 Dr. Sedgwick to the detection of the B. coli communis in the 

 water, as we believe thsrt this organism, or forms closely allied 

 to it, may be found far more frequently present in pure peaty or 

 other upland surface waters than is usually surmised, and that 

 such microbial forms are not necessarily indicative of the access of 

 sewage to a given water-supply. 



The epidemic of typhoid fever, which apparently started above 

 I.owell, infecting the Merrimack River, supplying that city with 

 water, .subsequently extended to Lawrence, situated on the same 

 river, nine miles below Lowell, and a so using its waters for 

 drinking purposes. In this connection Dr. Sedgwick remarks : 

 " Inasmuch as there is good reason to believe that this unusual 

 epidemic was caused by the unusual infection of the river at 

 North Chelmsford and at Lowell, it is interesting to observe 

 that some of ^he infectious material was apparently able to sur- 

 vive the comparatrvely unfavourabk conditions imposed by the 

 long and slow passage through the Lawrence reservoir and the 

 -rvice pipes." [The " unfavourable conditions " here referred 

 are the processes of sedimentation to which the microbial 

 •Mtents of the water would be exposed under these circum- 

 i.uices.] " It would seem therefore that, while much of it must 

 have perished en route, some of it did not ; and, as the time of 

 year was November and December, we are safe in concluding 

 that during these months, under certain conditions, some of the 

 infectious material of typhoid fever may be conveyed nine miles 



NO. 1359, VOL. 53] 



by a river, may slowly travel through a distributing reservoir, 

 and still remain effective to a very dangerous extent if swallowed 

 in drinking water." During the four years preceding 1891, the 

 average mortality from typhoid fever in Lowell is stated to have 

 been 8-44 per 10,000, whilst in 1890-91 it rose to 19-54 per 

 10,000. Thus the average death-rate from typhoid fever is con- 

 siderably higher than we experience in London, but it sinks 

 into comparative insignificance when we contrast it with the 

 statistics of typhoid fever in Chicago compiled by Dr. O. M. 

 Huff, of that city. In 1891 the deaths directly attributed to 

 typhoid fever in Chicago amounted to no less than 16-64 per 

 10,000. In 1892 the condition of things was somewhat im- 

 proved, although the death-rate, says Dr. Huff, still remained 

 three times as great as in New Vork, five times as great as in 

 London, and more than six times the rate of Berlin. Dr. Huff 

 has made a minute study of the relation of typhoid fever to the 

 water supply of Chicago, and has come to the conclusion that 

 the contamination of the drinking water supplied to the city with 

 sewage is the " efficient cause" of this alarming mortality. It 

 is stated that Lake Michigan " serves both as a water-bucket 

 and a cesspool for Chicago." An American scientific journal, 

 in reviewing this report, reasonably suggests that every resident 

 of Chicago ought to be advised of the fact that there is death In 

 the water-pipe. 



It is to be hoped that the attention now being bestowed in 

 America on subjects both directly and indirectly connected with 

 public health will lead to beneficial practical results, and that 

 the distribution of water openly contaminated with sewage in its 

 raw, unfiltered condition for drinking purposes, will be sum- 

 marily prohibited by law in all countries before such grave conse- 

 quences have again to be met as attended the distribution in 

 Hamburg of raw, unfiltered river Elbe water for dietetic 

 purposes, G. C. Frankland. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND 

 STANDARDISATION OF APPARATUS, 

 RECENTLY ACQUIRED BY KEW OBSER- 

 VATORY, FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF 

 TEMPERA TURE. 

 'T'HE accuracy of the measurements made at Kew Observatory 

 ■^ may, without exaggeration, be regarded as a matter of 

 national concern. It is right, therefore, that the scientific 

 public should be made acquainted with the principles involved 

 and the methods of comjjarison employed in any series of 

 measurements conducted at the Observatory ; more especially 

 when a new departure is made, either in the apparatus used or in 

 the nature of the observations. 



In the absence from England of Prof. Callendar, F.R S., the 

 writer, at the request of the Kew Committee, undertook the 

 responsibilities connected with the preparation and standardisa- 

 tion of the apparatus, recent^ installed at Kew, for the 

 accurate measurement of temperatures — i^articularly of high 

 temperatures. 



It would be impossible, without unduly trespassing upon 

 these pages, to give a full description of the principles on which 

 the measurements of temperatures by platinum thermometers are 

 founded, or of the methods of standardisation adopted. I will, 

 however, endeavour to briefly indicate reasons for our faith in 

 the principles involved and the accuracy of the methods 

 employed. 



I make this communication with the (unofficial) consent of the 

 Kew Sub-Committee, to whom the oversight of this matter was 

 delegated ; at the same time it should be understood that the 

 writer alone is responsible for the statements, or opinions, 

 advanced in the following pages. 



Sir Douglas Galton in his address at Ipswich remarked that 

 " British students of science are compelled to resort to Berlin or 

 Paris when they require to compare their more delicate instru- 

 ments and apparatus with recognised standards." We may now 

 hope, tjowever, that, at all events as regards temperature 

 measurements, his statement will ere long require modification. 



I. Brief Explanation of the Terminology and of the Principles 



involved in the Aleasuremcnts of Temperature by Platinum 



Thermometers, 



A platinum temperature scale is one so constructed that a ris.e 



of one degree on that scale at any temperature would cause the 



electrical resistance of a platinum wire to increase by one- 



