SANITAKY SURVEY OF DRAINAGE BASIN OF POTOMAC RIVER. 243 
Mercersburg, Pa., a town with a population of about 1,000, has a 
public water supply and a sewerage system. The sewerage system 
consists of two pipes which, with a third pipe from a college having 
300 students, discharge into a little tovm run. Conococheague 
Creek is next polluted just above its mouth at Williamsport by a 
large tanner}"^, employing about 250 men. 
Williamsport, Md., has a population of about 1,500, but has 
neither public water suppl}^ nor sewerage. 
A few cases of typhoid occur here every year. Two deaths from 
this disease are recorded for 1904, one for 1905, but none for 1906 
to August 3. 
The Potomac, after receiving Conococheague Creek, flows but 5 
miles before it is joined by another important tributary, Opequon 
Creek. The Opequon drams an area of 335 square miles, most of 
which is given over to farming, and bears a population of about 
25,000, half of wliich is concentrated in the two cities of Winchester 
and Martinsburg. 
Winchester is the county seat of Frederick County, Va., and in 1900 
was credited with a population of 5,161. It has a public water sup- 
ply from two springs ovmed and protected by the cit}^. There is no 
sewerage system; cesspools and privies are in general use. These 
probably drain themselves tlirough crevices in the underlying lime- 
stone into Town Run, which flows through the city to Abrams Creek, 
a tributary of the Opequon. The run also receives the surface drain- 
age of the city, some kitchen waste, and wastes from a steam laundry 
and gas house. On July 27 of this year the tovTi was visited by a 
^^cloud-burst,” which flooded the streets and cellars and scoured the 
privies and cesspools. 
There are no records to indicate the degree of prevalence of t}^phoid 
fever in Winchester and its vicinity. I gathered, however, that there 
occurs an average of eight or ten cases of the disease every year. 
^ At Jordan Sprmgs, a summer hotel and its cottages discharge their 
sewage into Lick Run, which joins the Opequon 2 miles below the 
mouth of Abrams Creek. 
Martinsburg is the county seat of Berkeley County, W. Va., and in 
1900 was credited with a population of 7,564. It is situated 86 miles 
above Great Falls, on Tuscarora Creek, 1 mile from its junction wdth 
the Opequon. The city has ample supply of water from Patterson 
Spring, about three-quarters of a mile west of tovm; a few wells and 
some cisterns are also in use. There is no sewerage other than for 
surface water, which goes into a branch of Tuscarora Creek. Cess- 
pools and privies, two or three of which overhang this creek, are in 
general use. A great deal of industrial waste from woolen mills and 
gas works is also discharged into the creek. 
