ANIMAL LIFE AND SEWAGE IN THE GENESEE 

 RIVER, NEW YORK* 



FRANK COLLINS BAKER 

 University of Illinois 



It is a hopeful sign of permanent improvement in our 

 rivers and streams when commonwealths and municipali 

 ties turn their attention to the condition of these waters 

 and provide means for their purification where they have 

 previously been contaminated by sewage, refuse, or chem- 

 icals. 



It has been known to biologists for many years that 

 sewage and chemicals were inimical to the life inhabiting 

 these waters, but political bodies have been slow to realize 

 or to admit that the pouring of millions of gallons of 

 crude sewage had any effect on the animal life living 

 in such waters. It is even probable in some cases that 

 those in authority cared little about the effect of such 

 contamination, if it provided an easy and economical 

 method of disposing of the sewage. The damage to fish 

 and other aquatic life has not been realized by the en- 

 gineers in charge of such work and hence this class of 

 scientific men has not protested or sought a better 

 method, at least not until recent years. The work of the 

 various conservation commissions of the several states, 

 as well as the efforts of natural history societies, univer- 

 sities, and private individuals, have brought into promi- 

 nence the danger from stream pollution and have awak- 

 ened widespread interest in this important subject. 1 



In Illinois, careful studies are in progress by the Nat- 



* Contribution from the Museum of Natural History, University of Illinois. 



iSee in this connection, Henry B. Ward, "The Elimination of Stream 

 Pollution in New Ymk State," Trans. Amer. Fisheries Soc, XLVIII, pp. 

 1-25, 1918. 



