^4 



SCIENCE 



Vol. XXII. No. 549 



rials, such as would be found in suitable filtration areas 

 throughout the State. Each filter, however, consists of a 

 single material. The experiments were so conducted as 

 to throw as much light as possible upon the laws of filtra- 

 tion. The degree of purification of sewage and of water 

 by the sands of different coarseness, the quantities which 

 the different materials are able to jsurify, the best method 

 of operation of filters of dilSerent construction, and the 

 treatment necessary under varying conditions arising 

 from different lengths of service of the filters and from 

 the effects of weather have been investigated. Much at- 

 tention has been given to the phj'sical characteristics of 

 materials which govern their action as filters. The open 

 sjDaee between the sand grains, the capillarity and the 

 frictional resistance to the passage of water, etc., have 

 been determined for many materials. 



Knowing, from the results of these experimental filters, 

 the degree of purification of sewage and of water effected 

 by each of a series of materials ranging from fine loam to 

 coarse gravel, and having formulated the jshysical char- 

 acteristics ©f these materials which govern their action as 

 filters, it is now possible, by studying the physical char- 

 acteristics of materials sent to Lawrence by cities and 

 towns desiring to adopt filtration, to predict with reason- 

 able accuracy what their efliciency will be as filters. From 

 this it will be readily seen that these investigations do 

 away, in a large measure, with the experimental nature 

 which would otherwise be attached to the operation of 

 large and expensive filter plants. The object of the Law- 

 rence Experiment Station, in short, is to study the laws 

 of filtration with a view to economy. 



In regard to the efficiency of filtration, it may be stated, 

 in passing, that sewage can be applied to areas of coarse 

 (mortar) sand 5 feet deep, at a rate of 120,000 gallons per 

 acre dailj', with a removal of 95 per cent of the organic 

 matter and germs in the applied sewage. With finer sand 

 the purification is still more complete, but the Cjuantity 

 which can be successfully treated is less. By means of 

 chemical precipitation it is possible, under the most favor- 

 able conditions, to remove only from one-half to two- 

 thirds of the organic matter from sewage. 



One of the most imjjortant points in water piirification 

 is the removal of disease-producing germs, since it has 

 become clearly established that high death-rates from dis- 

 eases, caused by germs which can live in water, result 

 largely from drinking polluted water. The results of the 

 Lawrence exjieriments show that it is possible to con- 

 struct filters which will purify at least 2,000,000 gallons 

 of water per acre daily and remove more than 99 per cent 

 of the bacteria in the unfiltered water. 



The theory of filtration and a large amount of informa- 

 tion upon the actual operation of filters have been j)re- 

 sented in the annual reports of the Board and in the 

 special report upon Purification of Sewage and Water, 

 1890 — a volume of 881 pages. 



Large sewage filters are in successful operation at 

 Framingham, Marlborough and Gardner, in this State, and 

 others are in the process of construction. A large filter, 

 also, to purify the water supply for the city of Lawrence, 

 is nearly completed. 



It is interesting to note the increasing confidence with 

 which this work of the Board is regarded by sanitarians 

 and engineers, not only in this State but throughout the 

 United States and in foreign lands. 



The advance in methods of analysis is worthy of note, 

 and more especially in the interpretation of the results of 

 analysis. Old methods have been improved and new 

 ones devised, as well as some pieces of apparatus, which it 

 is believed are not to be found outside the laboratories of 

 the Board — except at their exhibit in the Anthropological 

 Building at the World's Fan-. 



ASEPSIS— PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. 



BY ALBEET S. ASHMEAD, M. D., KEW VOEK. 



These is a singular agreement of precept between some 

 of our new philosophical schools and the doctrine of the 

 Orientals as to our duty to the race in case of disease. 

 The doctrine of our philosophers, teaching the survival of 

 the fittest, and our duty to the race, not to interfere with 

 the eliminating operations of nature, is not put into jsrac- 

 tice, and considering that Christianity is our religion and 

 is not looking forward at present to any imminent de- 

 cline, it is not likely to pass into practice for some time 

 to come. The Orientals criticize Christianity because it 

 seems unduly and undutifully occupied in counteracting 

 the decrees of nature, by saving, with fostering care, indi- 

 viduals of the race, preserving in hospitals all that ought 

 to perish, and heaping up, so to speak, the sweepings of 

 nature, to j)erpetuate moral and physical uncleanness. 

 True, they also are anxious to build hospitals; but if they 

 were let alone perhaps they might build them only for 

 animals, whose races are not important enough to make it 

 a pity that disease and vice should be allowed to be 

 transmitted among them from generation to generation. 

 Wherever the Oriental spirit has developed on its own 

 lines, it has endeavored to eradicate the human weed, to 

 sweep away all human influences detrimental to mankind, 

 whether they be represented by disease or by crime, al- 

 ways ready to sacrifice any man to the interest of men. 

 The leper was cast out to die with his disease in unpitied 

 misery and solitude; the beggar, unable to earn hie 

 bread or support his family, was excluded from help and 

 intercourse of any kind; what could the race expect from 

 his seed ? Yv^hat is the use of amputating a limb which 

 tuberculosis or syphilis or leprosy is gnawing at ? Why 

 should his seed be preserved to perpetuate his rotten- 

 ness ? Why should we so tenderly humor the madman, 

 use infinite care and infinite treasures of knowledge, and 

 miracles of skill, to bring the diseased brain into a condi- 

 tion which makes the man innocuous, tolerable, while yet 

 he can never be normal, rational, useful; his brain fibre is 

 degenerated and should not be transmitted to future gen- 

 erations. 



When we Westerners discovered the bacterium we 

 thought that here we had the cursed cause of all disease, 

 and forthwith began to give her chase or to lay siege to 

 her citadel. The Oriental may have thought dimly: Wher- 

 ever you are, O, Microbe, you are in the state where 

 Providence has placed you and must do her behests. 

 Tours is the empire of the abnormous, the morbid, the 

 destructive. Whatever part of creation you establish 

 yourself upon is by your very presence stamped as bad, 

 unhealthy, undeserving of existence. Therefore stay in 

 your domain, we do not envy it to you. Eat up what be- 

 longs to you, it can do us only harm. These Eastern 

 populations believe in fate; they are the true Stoics. 

 What is written, is written, Kismet. If we are doomed to 

 be cut off by cholera we shall not escape it, and the fear 

 of the inevitable shall not j)revent us from plunging our 

 limbs into the lethal waters of the Ganges, or Cjuenching 

 our thirst in the Mecca pools. And what does it mean, 

 that our own j)eople, not very long ago, considered the 

 use of vaccine as being an ^interference with the will of 

 Providence. They called Providence what in the Orient 

 we call fate. It would seem that medicine in general is 

 just the oj^posite of this magnificent supineness: the 

 physician tries to save his individual, let what may be- 

 come of the race; there is another kind of recklessness, 

 not supine like the Oriental, but busy and officious. It 

 would be a much higher task, if, instead of waging war 

 against the bacillus, who has invaded an individual, med- 

 icine should find means to obviate and suppress the bacil- 



