558 
SANITARY NOTES ON POTABLE WATER. 
solely, where soil, water, or air are contaminated by putrid 
organic filth, especially by putrid human excrements. I 
need scarcely remark that this is also the view held by Mr. 
John Simon. 
Again, Dr. Blaxhall expresses a strong belief * that foul 
privy pits may, amongst other causes, be productive in ren¬ 
dering typhoid endemic; in other words that putrid faecal 
matter may be conducive to the propagation of the disease by 
increasing the virulence of the contagion. 
The opinion of Mr. J. Netten Radcliffe and Dr. Buchanan 
is indicated in one of their reports.t There we read :— (e In 
the present imperfect state of our knowledge of the con¬ 
ditions under which faecal diseases spread, we do not feel 
ourselves entitled to say at what time, after being passed, 
dejections are or may (under various external circumstances) 
become dangerous to health. We cannot say this either in 
regard of healthy excrement or of that passed from persons 
affected with disease, specific or other; but we think it may 
probably be taken as sufficiently true for practical purposes 
that there is little chance of mischief from the storage of ex¬ 
crement for a day, even though along with healthy excrement 
that of persons affected, for example, by enteric fever should, 
without proper disinfection, chance occasionally to be in¬ 
cluded.^ This, therefore, implies that discharges containing 
the specific virus of typhoid are not so dangerous in the 
fresh state as" after fermentation has set in. 
Dr. DuncanJ remarks that if the discharges of persons 
suffering from typhoid are allowed to decompose on the 
bedclothes, or in the chamber utensils, there may be danger 
of infection. In his opinion, it has also been shown to 
be probable that if these discharges are allowed to decompose 
in the soil beneath and around human dwellings, the disease 
may be spread by the poisonous emanations being drawn 
up from the soil into the houses. Similarly, he thinks there 
may be danger of infection by tainted drinking water. 
It is well worth mentioning that even those who are on 
principle opposed to the contagiousness of typhoid, as, for 
instance, Drs. Bastian and Murchison,§ have been led by 
their researches to seek for “ some forms ” of putrefying 
matter as the exciting cause. Sir Thomas Watson || suggests 
that Dr. Murchison’s views may be so qualified without 
* Reports of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council and Local Govern¬ 
ment Board, New Series, ii, p. 59. 
f L. c. p. 142. 
% ‘ Typhoid Fever, its Cause and Prevention/ 
§ Bastian, ‘ Beginnings of Life/ ii, p. cxl. 
|| Nineteenth Century , May, 1877, p. 392. 
