CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 67 



quickly inoffensive to sight and smell. Similar processes go on 

 more slowly if the organic debris is continuously immersed in fresh 

 water, and still more slowly if in salt water. In addition to the 

 enormous loss of nitrogenous material which must be minimized 

 if we are to maintain unimpaired the agricultural value of the 

 land, the unscientific disposal of sewage, garbage and factory 

 wastes not alone impairs sssthetic conditions, but becomes an insid- 

 ious menace to the public health through the mollusk fisheries. 

 Further, the mechanical problems of removing this material from 

 the beds of the waterways is already becoming prominent. Com- 

 petent authorities scout the idea that Boston harbor is at present 

 filling up to any considerable degree with sewage sludge, but the 

 problem must be met in the not distant future. This sewage sludge 

 and the manufactory wastes upon entering salt or brackish water 

 precipitate much more rapidly than in fresh water or upon land, 

 and becomes relatively insoluble, hence the accumulation in harbors, 

 — Boston and New Bedford harbors and the estuaries of the Mer- 

 rimac, Taunton and other rivers. This sludge, instead of under- 

 going the normal rapid oxidation and nitrification, as it does when 

 exposed to the air on land, undergoes in the sea water a series of 

 changes, mainly putrefactive, which results in the production of 

 chemical substances which in solution may (1) drive away the 

 fish which in incredible quantities formerly resorted to that place; 

 (3) impair the vitality and even kill whatever fish spawn or fry 

 may be present; (3) check the growth'of or completely destroy the 

 microscopic plants and animals which serve as food for the young 

 fish and shellfish; (4) by developing areas of oily film floating upon 

 the surface of the water, enormous numbers of the surface-swim- 

 ming larvae of clams, quahaugs, scallops, oysters, mussels and other 

 marine animals may be destroyed annually. 



But most serious of all is the fact that all the edible mollusks, 

 notably the clam, quahaug, oyster and mussel, act as living filters, 

 whose function is to remove from the water the bacteria and other 

 microscopic plants and animals. Most of these microscopic organ- 

 isms are digested by the mollusk; but in instances where the mol- 

 lusk is eaten raw or incompletely cooked, man is liable to infection, 

 if the bacillus of typhoid fever or certain other disease chances to 

 be present in the gills or stomach of the mollusk, or in the water 

 contained between the shells. While the chance of such infection 

 is exceedingly remote, it is nevertheless actually operative, though 

 vastly exaggerated by irresponsible paragraphers. Some typhoid 

 epidemics in this country and abroad have apparently been found 



