SANITARY SURVEY OF DRAINAGE BASIN OF POTOMAC RIVER. 241 
degree of the prevalence of typhoid, but in conversation with one of 
the local practitioners I learned that a considerable number of cases 
occur annual^. 
The largest tovm on the South Branch is Romney, W. Va., and 
it is the only other town to contribute to it any serious pollution. 
In 1900 it had a population of 580. It is the county seat of Hamp- 
shire County, W. Va., and boasts of a public water supply from a 
mountain spring. It has no sewerage system. A State school for 
the deaf and blind, having 225 to 250 pupils, is located here; the 
school has a private sewer which discharges into Big Run, a creek 
joining the South Branch about a mile below town. The smface 
drainage of the town is into the river. 
A case or two of typhoid occurs in the town every year, said to 
be, but rarely, of local origin. 
Returning to the main stream we reach the tovm of Paw Paw, 
about 2 miles below the mouth of the Little Cacapon River. The 
to^vn is an insignificant one, but has a tanner}^ and is the shipping 
point for the peach growers of the vicinity. The tannery discharges 
the sewage of its 140 employees with the waste directly into the river. 
There is neither public water supply nor sewerage. Being situated 
on a hillside, the place is naturally well drained, all the surface drain- 
age going, of course, into the river. 
A good deal of typhoid occurs here every year, more cases occur- 
ring in the country and among the fruit pickers than in the town 
itself. The occurrence of the disease among the fruit pickers, while 
of relatively minor importance so far as pollution of the river is con- 
cerned, is worthy of consideration in connection with the question 
of the possibility of the spread of the disease b}^ the fruit, some of 
winch can hardly escape being soiled. 
A little below the village of Great Cacapon the Great Cacapon 
River joins its waters with those of the Potomac. The Great Caca- 
pon is a considerable stream, having a dramage area of 670 square 
miles, with a population of about 18 to the square mile. There are no 
towns of importance in its basin. 
About 10 miles below, and 108 miles above Great Falls, on the 
Maryland side, is Hancock. This is a tovm of about 900 population, 
and of importance because of the recent advent of the Western 
Maryland Railroad. It has no public water supply nor sewerage, but 
two hotels and the railway depot sewer into the river. 
Some cases of typhoid occur here every year. Two deaths from 
this disease have been recorded since January 1 (to September 2), 
1906. 
Opposite and slightly below Hancock is the Brosius depot, on the 
line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Here the waters of Warm 
Spring Run, polluted at Berkeley Springs, join the Potomac. 
29643—07 16 
