Decembeb 25, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



925 



In the chapter on water, it is noteworthy 

 that some of the large cities in Great Britain 

 are rapidly following the example of ancient 

 Home to bring pure water from quite a dis- 

 tance. So, for example, Glasgow is supplied 

 with water from Loch Katrine, thirty-four 

 miles north of the city. Manchester has re- 

 cently obtained a new source of supply from 

 Thirlmere, ninety miles from the city, and 

 by the construction of a dam the level of the 

 lake has been raised and its storage capacity 

 increased. Liverpool by immense engineering 

 works has impounded the waters of the 

 Vyrnwy in Wales. The work involved the 

 construction of a massive masonry wall across 

 a narrow part of the valley, creating an arti- 

 ficial reservoir four and three fourths miles in 

 length and conveying the water a distance of 

 sixty-eight miles. 



Birmingham is likewise engaged in the task 

 of bringing water from the upper sources of 

 the Wye. There can be no question as to 

 the sanitary and economic effects of these 

 changes. It is well known that the greatest 

 reduction in typhoid-fever rates has every- 

 where been accomplished when a pure water 

 supply has been substituted for a previously 

 contaminated one. 



The vital statistics of our own country as 

 analyzed by the present writer in his address 

 on the " Conservation of Life and Health by 

 Improved Water Supply, White House, 1908," 

 show that the combined average death rate 

 from typhoid fever in cities with a contami- 

 nated water supply was 69.4 and after the sub- 

 stitution of a pure supply it fell to 19.8 per 

 100,000, a reduction of 70.5 per cent. The re- 

 duction in ten cities in the state of New 

 York, according to a paper published in the 

 Bulletin of the New York State Department 

 of Health, April, 1908, amounted to 53.4 per 

 cent. One of the tables based upon data ob- 

 tained from Dr. Wilbur, of the Division of 

 Vital Statistics, U. S. Census Bureau, shows 

 that during the last twenty-five years the death 

 rate from typhoid fever has fallen in fourteen 

 countries and large cities from an average of 

 42.3 to 18.1 per 100,000, a reduction of 54.3 

 per cent. It may be urged that improved 

 methods of medical treatment are responsible 



for a considerable reduction in the death 

 rates, but when we see such a striking change 

 immediately after the installation of filtration 

 plants as in the case of Albany, Watertown, 

 Lawrence and Cincinnati, we are forced to 

 the conclusion that water purification plays 

 the most important role. We note that the 

 authors still quote 2Y.08 gallons of water as a 

 fair daily average per capita consumption. In 

 most of our American cities the per capita 

 consumption for household, trade and manu- 

 facturing and municipal purposes is three to 

 four times greater. 



The chapter on the collection, removal and 

 disposal of escretal and other refuse is very 

 complete, as are most of the English text- 

 books on the subject. Attention is directed 

 in the comparison of methods on page 81 to 

 the fact that in Nottingham, where middens, 

 pails and water closets are in use in different 

 parts of the town Dr. Boobbyer has shown that 

 the greatest prevalence of enteric or typhoid 

 fever is to be found in the houses with 

 middens and the least in the water closeted 

 houses, those with pails occupying an inter- 

 mediate position. In 1902 there were thrice as 

 many cases of enteric fever proportionately in 

 " pail " houses as in " w. c." houses, and four- 

 teen times as many in " midden " houses as 

 in " w. c." houses. 



The writer in 1895 in his typhoid fever in- 

 vestigation in Washington observed similar 

 facts and offered as an explanation that the 

 sewers carry away the filth which otherwise 

 would be a source of danger chiefly through 

 the agency of flies, who may carry the germs 

 on their feet and infect the food supply of 

 neighboring houses. 



The value of pure air and outdoor life is 

 pointed out on page 169, by referring to Dr. 

 Ogle's researches which have shown " that of 

 all the industrial classes, those which are the 

 healthiest and have the lowest death rates are 

 the gardeners, farmers, agricultural laborers 

 and fishermen — those namely, whose occupa- 

 tions are carried on in the open air. The 

 death rate from phthisis in these cases is only 

 half that of the male community generally, 

 and they enjoy about the same amount of 



