Vol. 55.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxxVli 



Other : all traces of the enormous mass of vibrios and of typhoid 

 bacilli introduced had disappeared, although these organisms had 

 increased during their sojourn of 16 to 18 hours in the living bodies. 

 It is satisfactory to find that though Nature sometimes sends 

 us a plentiful supply of objectionable organisms, she also provides 

 means for their extinction. This bacteriocidal effect of compact 

 sand is, I think, of importance. 



Having got a good water-supply, one would think that folk would 

 then do their best to keep it good ; but, alas ! this obviously right course 

 has often been neglected, not of course intentionally, but accident- 

 ally or thoughtlessly ; and two cases may be noticed, one with a 

 well-water and the other with a spring-water, in which disastrous 

 results followed from contamination. I allude to the outbreaks of 

 fever at Worthing in 1893, and at Maidstone in 1897, in which 

 the epidemic was traced to the water-supply. In both cases I take 

 my information from the Eeport of the Local Government Board on 

 the subject. These are merely samples of a large number of such 

 Reports. 



At Worthing it was shown ' that the soil overlying the Chalk in 

 which were sunk the wells and headings furnishing the water 

 supplied . . . was liable to sustained pollution by sewage . . . and 

 there is reason to know that free communication did . . . exist 

 between the soil above the Chalk and the new heading in the 

 waterworks enclosure,' by means of a fissure, which had been 

 found to yield water of doubtful quality, near the surface. Experi- 

 ments proved that this fissure ' freely communicates with the new 

 heading, and it is evident that, given contamination by sewage 

 of the ground above and in the neighbourhood of that fissure, 

 dangerous material could readily gain access to the public water- 

 supply.' 1 



At Maidstone the water-supply was partly got from the Lower 

 Greensand, from the Ewell and Tutsham springs, in the parish of 

 West Earleigh, on the right side of the Medway Valley, 3 miles 

 or more south-west of the town. These springs are thrown out 

 by the Atherfield Clay from the overlying Hythe Beds, which latter 

 division consists in this neighbourhood of the well-known local 

 limestone, the Kentish Eag, with alternations of softer and more 

 sandy beds known as hassock, the whole being generally of an 



^ Dr. T. Thomson, 'Report ... on an Epidemic of Enteric Fever in the 

 Borough of Worthing . . ./ p. 17. Fol. London, 1894. 



