Water in Relation to Health and Disease. 
745 
Discharged into a slowly running stream during a hot 
summer, when the volume of water is much reduced, this large 
amount of putrescible organic matter would occasion serious 
befoulment, and prove a cause of sickness in animals habitually 
consuming it. 
In the process of sugar-refining rivers are dangerously con- 
taminated with the washings of bags used in the filtration of 
sugar. The drainage which escapes from these works is said to 
be 100 times more potent than its own weight of sewage in ren- 
dering running water foul and useless. A single refinery, it has 
been affirmed, “ must utterly ruin any stream of moderate dimen- 
sions into which its filter washings are allowed to flow in an 
unpurified condition.” The befouling effect of this matter is 
strikingly evidenced by the vast quantity of “ stinking, stringy, 
fungoid growth ” which covers the beds of the streams into 
which it is discharged. 
Linen and jute works also contribute to befoul in a 
dangerous degree some rivers of the North. The waste liquor 
resulting from the boiling processes resorted to in the prepara- 
tion of flax contains a considerable amount of putrescible organic 
matter. 
Starch factories also give rise to dangerous organic pollution 
of the streams beside which they are situated. The refuse dis- 
charged from them is said by competent authorities to have a 
polluting power ten times as great as ordinary town sewage. 
The outpourings from clothworks, tanneries, paper factories, 
and other mills and works where organic matter is dealt with, 
add considerably to the deterioration of our streams as sources of 
water for the live stock of the farm. 
While we write we are consulted in reference to sickness and 
mortality in a stud of horses in Herts. In this case it had been 
found necessary to hold the water up in the river Colne above 
a drinking place, in order to allow of drains being put under 
its bed. Two breweries and a fellmonger threw their refuse 
into the stream above, where it had for some time been allowed to 
stagnate, and on being let off, not only were “ cartloads ” of 
fish destroyed, but several horses suffered severe diarrhoea, and 
one died. 
Pollution of Drains. 
The possibility of injurious contamination becomes much 
greater in small streams and stagnant ditches than in the waters 
of free-moving rivers, and especially in such as pass through, 
or in proximity with, towns or villages. In the latter it is 
frequently the case that they receive the excreta, refuse, and 
