AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
The Quality of Water Supplies. 
—BY— 
JOHN W. HILL, M. Am. Soc. C. E. 
WITH DISCUSSION 
By DESMOND FITZGERALD, CHARLES FRANCIS, WILLIAM E. 
WORTHEN, CHARLES H. SNOW, S. WHINERY, WILLIAM P. 
MASON and JOHN W. HILL. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
INSTITUTED 1852. 
TRANSACTIONS. 
Note.—This Society is not responsible, as a body, for the facts and opinions advanced 
in any of its publications. 
724. 
(Yol. XXXII.—August, 1894.) 
THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
By John W. Hill, M. Am. Soc. C. E. 
Read at the Annual Convention, June, 1894. 
WITH DISCUSSION. 
The presentation to the Society of a paper on the self-purification 
of streams, by Dr. Charles G. Currier,* and one on fresh water algse, 
by George W. Rafter,f M. Am. Soc. C. E., is the writer’s apology for 
offering a paper on a subject, which, from its title, might seem better 
addressed to a health congress than to a society of engineers. But 
health boards and medical societies are usually powerless to rectify 
the evils to which attention is called by this paper. They may raise 
objections to existing conditions, and propose remedies, but to the 
engineer is finally entrusted the work of design and construction. 
Moreover, if the engineer engaged on a work of public water supply 
makes no mistake in selecting the source, or, the source being open to 
suspicion, he adopts the proper remedies to avoid injury to the con- 
sumers of water, then no question can be raised by health boards and 
medical associations. After all, it seems that health officers, pliysi- 
* Trans. Am. Soc. C. E,, Yol. XXLV, page 21. 
t Trans Am. Sop, C, Y<4, XXI, page 483. 131 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
cians and analysts of water supplies can only demonstrate the evils, 
and aid the engineer in determining the cause, while the processes or 
devices for meeting or avoiding the danger are purely engineering 
problems, and as such should always be worthy of attention at our 
hands. 
To members of the Society engaged in designing or operating 
works of public water supply, any inquiry into the quality of drinking 
water is usually always welcome, and, while the writer does not expect 
to offer any new facts, he hopes to be able to present some of the old 
ones in a way to carry conviction to doubting minds, of one of the 
lirincipal dangers which now invests our sources of drinking water. 
It is believed that water is a carrier of certain diseases, namely, 
cholera, typhoid fever and diarrhoea, and that the specific germ is 
transmitted from the sick to the well through the medium of drinking 
water. 
It is also held by some investigators that the breaking up of vege- 
table detritus in drinking water may be the cause of disease, and it is 
well known that mineral poisons may be imbibed in drinking water. 
Cholera is said, by Dr. Shakespere and others, to originate de novo 
in India, from the contamination of their drinking water by the filth 
of the native inhabitants,* and epidemics of typhoid fever and diar- 
rhoea have been traced to wells,f or other sources of water supply, or 
to the ice used in cooling water, J the germs of disease being locked 
up in the ice and released upon its melting in the water. 
Now, while water is held to be a carrier of disease germs, the writer 
is not aware that any investigator has ever claimed to have seen these 
germs in water, even under the highest powers of the microscope ; 
and the evidence that water is such a carrier of pathogenic bacteria is 
obtained by inoculation from water samples, of nutrient media in test 
tubes, or on culture plates. 
Thus, by methods quite indirect and open to grave errors of judg- 
ment in the hands of any but an expert, the fact of water carrying the 
spores of disease germs is established. 
To those who have given the subject of bacteria no special study, 
it is proper to remark that the modern methods of bacteriology have 
* “U. S. Rep. on Cholera in Europe." Dr. Edward O. Shakespere, 1890. 
t‘‘Bacteriological Study of Drinking Water.” Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, Ann Arbor, 
Mich., 1892. 
J “ Water Supply.” W. R. Nichols, 1883. HILL ON" THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
132 
clearly proven that the soil, air and water swarm with bacterial life, 
and that countless micro-organisms and presumably organisms which 
cultivation and the microscope have not yet revealed, are steadily at 
work feeding upon and destroying the organic matter in these elements, 
and that we who drink water and inspire air are taking into the 
system thousands of these bacteria or their spores every day of our 
lives, from which it follows that first, all these bacteria are not patho- 
genic in character; or, second, the condition of the circulation or tissues 
of the human system are such as to repel their action and deprive them 
of a fertile soil, both of which are known to be true. 
Of the so-called pathogenic bacteria, only a few have been proven 
to be the cause of disease, and of those which are known to accom- 
pany disease, although they may not cause it, they are said to be only 
active when brought in contact with a vitiated circulation, or with 
surface or internal lesions. 
There can be no blood poisoning, excepting the germ of “sep- 
ticaemia” be introduced into the circulation, and it can be introduced 
into the circulation only through a lesion of the skin or membrane. 
So long as water contains organic matter in process of destruction, 
so long will bacteria be present in water, and some of these may be 
pathogenic bacteria, and lay the foundation for dangerous disease. 
In considering the number of colonies of bacteria per unit of vol- 
ume in a given water sample, it has been assumed that the number 
bears a just relation to the amount of organic matter in such water, and 
that any treatment of the water which diminishes the number of colo- 
nies of bacteria really does this by reducing the quantity of organic 
matter upon which such bacteria subsists. If all the bacteria, by any 
process, are removed from a sample of water, it is held that such water 
has been wholly deprived of organic matter, and, conversely, bacteria 
or other organisms harmless or harmful (to human life) cannot survive 
in a water wholly deprived of organic matter in a state of dissolution. 
It is possible that an absolutely pure water might be the carrier of a 
disease germ which accidentally came into it, but it is not likely that 
such germs could long subsist in a water deprived of pabulum for 
them, and they would soon perish for lack of subsistence, for bacteria, 
like any other vegetable growth, must have the proper nourishment, to 
sustain life. 
The simple knowledge that organic matter exists in water, without 133 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
a knowledge of its source, is not worth much. Sugar is organic mat- 
ter; so is excreta. Sugar in water would not be considered dangerous; 
excreta in water would be highly dangerous. Any organic matter in 
water will show an excess of ammonias above the normal, whether this 
be derived from safe organic compounds or from decomposing Avastes; 
hence, a knowledge of the organic matter, independent of the knoAvl- 
edge of the kind of source of such matter, does not furnish reliable in- 
formation upon the quality of a water sample. The chemical test for 
chlorine is usually relied upon to determine the probable source of 
organic matter, chlorine, usually from animal urine, indicating a 
sewage origin. 
In classifying waters from high elevations, Avhere the probabilities 
of sewage contamination are small, and waters from lowland sources, 
where the probabilities of sewage contamination are large, Prof. Prank- 
land considers that the source or cause of pollution is more important 
than pollution itself, and proposes that waters from elevated sources 
may contain from one and one-half to twice the amount of organic ele- 
ments (organic carbon and organic nitrogen) of lowland waters and 
still rank with the latter of any class (Frankland’s “Analysis of 
Waters,” page 94). 
Parts per 100 000 of Organic Elements in Water. 
1. 
Class. 
Water of great purity 
Upland source. 
0.2 
Lowland source. 
0.1 
2. 
Water of medium purity... 
.... 0.2-0.4 
0.1-0.2 
3. 
Water of doubtful purity.. 
.... 0.4-0.6 
0.2-0.4 
4. 
Impure water . 
0.6 + 
0.4— 
The bodies of fresh water at lowest elevation of any geographical 
system are the rivers and lakes, and these are essentially the channels 
of discharge for the sewage of organized communities, as well as for 
that larger volume of decomposable wastes in the surface drainage 
from urban and agricultural territory; hence, organic matter in low- 
land waters, whether of rivers or lakes, is generally from sewage or 
semi-sewage sources, while organic matter in the waters gathered at 
high elevations is generally the result of vegetable detritus in the run- 
off of rainfall on unimproved or virgin water-sheds. 
Chemistry enables us to determine as compounds containing nitro- 
gen the organic matter in solution, while the microscope assists us in HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
134 
tlie examination of the organic matters in suspension, hut in doing so 
it has this advantage over chemistry, in that the examination is direct 
and not so much dependent on the personal equation as the results of 
chemical analysis. 
A sample of rich sewage under microscopical observation will show 
micro-organisms capable of identification, together with masses of loose 
flocculent matter, which some term amorphous matter, but which the 
writer has indicated in his notes of tests as broken-up albuminous and 
cellulose matter. Such a sample, under continuous examination, will 
show a reduction of this loose matter, and in due time it will alto- 
gether disappear, the micro-organisms absorbing it, to support life; 
and with the disappearance of organic matter, there is a reduction of 
the vegetable and animal life in the water sample. 
It is sometimes asserted that certain organisms are only found in 
good water, but the writer has observed, for instance, Gopepoda in 
good cistern water, as well as in water known to be defiled by house- 
hold wastes. If Copepoda alone were found in a water sample, the 
writer should not regard it as bad; but if associated with other and 
lower animal organisms and the lower kinds of filamentous algae, he 
would consider such water as unsafe for drinking purposes. What is 
true of this particular organism, which is commonly found in soft 
waters, is true of any other organism supposed to inhabit pure 
water. 
In order to approach the question of water pollution projeerly, it 
must be borne in mind that while polluted water is held to be the 
cause of certain diseases, exactly how it acts on the human system is 
not well known. Bacteriologists generally regard the Koch cholera 
bacillus, and the Eberth typhoid bacillus, as the causes of these 
diseases, but this view is not shared by all physicians as it should be 
if the proof of cause was sufficient, although common prudence 
should decide us in rejecting any water known to contain the cholera 
or typhoid bacilli, whether these germs be regarded as the cause or 
result of disease, since they indicate the presence of the cause if not 
the cause themselves. 
The presence of putrefactive bacteria in a water sample is an evi- 
dence of decomposition going on in the water, but the disease, if any 
be derived from the use of such water, may not be due to the bacteria at 
all, but to some ptomaine obtained from the decomposition of the or- 135 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
ganic matter, or, as Professor Vaughan terms it, to some “ toxico- 
genic ” property of tlie water.* 
While water may be a carrier of the cause of cholera, diarrhoea and 
typhoid fever, it is only the latter in which we are specially interested. 
Cholera may never arise de novo in this country, and diarrhoea traceable 
to a polluted water supply is seldom fatal, while typhoid fever is 
with us always, and, apparently, in all localities, and its ravages of the 
young, the bright, and the promising, are more to be dreaded than any 
of our infectious diseases, if we may except diphtheria, and, in the 
writer’s opinion, it is more dreadful than diphtheria, because the latter 
is usually confined to the very young and undeveloped, while typhoid 
strikes down its victims as it were when they are on the very threshold 
of life ; and, in discussing the danger of a polluted water supply, it 
will be from the single standpoint of its influence in the propagation 
of typhoid fever; although it may be well to remark, that, apart from 
the specific germs or sources of the diseases mentioned, water may 
contain common putrefactive bacteria which may not be hurtful in 
themselves, but which indicate the probability of the presence of organic 
matter in some of which there may be danger.f 
The pumping of water for domestic uses from a source known to be 
polluted by sewage or otherwise cannot be too strongly condemned. 
The delivery of water containing the elements of fatal disease to a con- 
fiding and helpless community, partakes, in the writer’s opinion, of the 
worst kind of criminality, and no one engaged in such work who is 
aware of this, or who refuses to apply the tests which will reveal the 
danger, if it exists, can hope to escape censure, even if, for lack of 
laws, he may escape a just punishment for his crime. 
An attempt to kill people by the systematic distribution of a deadly 
poison would be met by the prompt arrest and punishment of the 
offender, but the delivery of a water for domestic uses as fatal to some 
as a dose of strychnine is permitted without a word of complaint. 
Why is this ? Must we shut our eyes to the fact that polluted water 
is dangerous to health ? Must we reject the results of the work of the 
patient investigators who have demonstrated over and over again that 
danger, often death, lurks in our drinking water ? Or shall we recog- 
nize the peril and address ourselves to the task of rectifying an evil 
* “ A Bacteriological Study of Drinking Water,” by Dr. V. C. Vaughan, 1892. 
Parkes’ “ Manual of Practical Hygiene,” 1883. HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
136 
greater than any other connected with the art of engineering ? For 
the saying of human life, whether accomplished by medical remedies 
or the sanitary arts, is the noblest work to which man can set his 
hand. 
The difficulty of procuring a satisfactory supply of potable water 
for large or even small communities, is well understood by the engi- 
neers engaged in this line of work. Sources of supply, which 10 or 
15 years ago were thought to be safe in a sanitary aspect, are now 
open to grave suspicions of quality; and it is not extravagant to assert 
that few of the larger cities of the country enjoy a public source of 
water supply which satisfies the ordinary requirements of a potable 
water. 
The increased sewage pollution of rivers and lakes which might 
furnish a safe drinking water is partly responsible for the difficulties 
surrounding this problem. But, apart from the special sewage pollu- 
tion by organized communities, there is a pollution of streams and 
lakes by the ordinary surface drainage from agricultural water-sheds 
which often renders the waters of such unfit for drinking purposes. 
Several years ago in discussing this question, the writer took the 
ground that, as the proportion of water used for drinking purposes 
was % Per cent., or less, of the whole quantity consumed by the takers 
from a public source, the better plan was not to attempt to secure the 
whole supply of potable quality, but to render any water available fit 
for drinking purposes by domestic filtration. Later experience satis- 
fies him that this plan will not answer for several reasons: 
1. All consumers of a public water supply cannot, or will not, use 
domestic filters. 
2. There is no domestic filter which is absolutely proof against the 
dangers of polluted water.* 
3. Even if a satisfactory filter was obtainable, it is doubtful if the 
average householder would give this the attention it would require to 
keep it at all times in condition to act as a safeguard. 
In view of which the writer has reached the conclusion that, if the 
consumer is to have a safe drinking water, it must come to him in this 
condition through the public water mains. In other words, the matter 
of purity must be looked after by the municipal corporation, or the 
water company. The prevalence of typhoid fever in many cities and 
* Parkes, “ Practical Hygiene,” 1892. 137 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
towns having a public water supply is evidence of the water now gen- 
erally furnished to consumers as being unpotable, and that the muni- 
cipal corporations, or the water companies, are furnishing to their 
consumers the spores, or organized bacilli of the Eberth germ, or 
material from which the specific virus of typhoid is generated. 
In speaking of the typhoid bacillus in water, it should be remarked 
that this has never been seen with the microscope without previous 
cultivation of the germ in nutrient media. Nor has it ever been de- 
monstrated, so far as the writer is aAvare, that the presence of bacilli 
in water can be proven, excepting by delicate and difficult bacterio- 
logical processes.* It is well understood that the infective element of 
typhoid fever oan be present in water and the chemical test be power- 
less to disclose it.f 
In his excellent treatise on Sewage Disposal, Mr. Rafter aptly 
remarks “that absolute immunity from danger (by sewage pollution of 
water supplies) cannot be hoped for. There will always be some risk, 
even after the best has been done that is possible in any given case. 
And, so far as public water supplies are concerned, the true remedy 
lies in the direction of an absolutely uncontaminated source. ”J 
The only objection that can be raised to Mr. Rafter’s method of 
securing an undefiled water supply is the great difficulty of its general 
application. For small communities requiring but a few hundred 
thousand gallons of water per diem, a supply of potable water can 
often be had from deep driven wells; but for large cities using many 
millions of gallons daily, such a source of supply is out of the ques- 
tion. It is doubtful if the water gathered on inhabited and improved 
water-sheds and impounded in large reservoirs for city supply, can be 
regarded as absolutely safe water for drinking purposes. Neither is 
it proper that lakes without current or circulation, and often the 
receivers of city sewage, should be considered as undefiled sources of 
supply. 
Rivers receiving the sewage of cities and towns on their banks, and 
on the banks of their tributaries, certainly are not within the limita- 
tion of Mr. Rafter’s sources, and where, then, are we to obtain the large 
volumes of water daily required by our larger cities, and have the same 
free from contamination at its source ? Cities located in the moun- 
* Sternberg, “ Manual of Bacteriology,” 1893, 
f frantland, '< Water Analysis,” 1890. 
% Sewage Pjsposa], by geo. yf. Rafter an4 M. N. Baker, 5894, HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
138 
tainous regions can impound water at elevations so high as to avoid 
pollution from all sources but the atmosphere, and this, as well as 
water, is always purer than in the valleys and on the lowlands. But 
for the larger cities of the middle States, having no mountain sources 
within practical reach, and without visible sources of supply which 
will satisfy Mr. Rafter’s requirements, our only resource is to accept 
such water as is available in large quantities, and so deal with it as to 
render it innocuous to health. 
It is too frequently asserted or implied in text books and reports on 
sewerage, that the noxious properties of sewage are destroyed or safely 
mitigated by proper dilution, but if sewage should be the carrier, as it 
undoubtedly often is, of pathogenic germs, how can dilution remove 
them ? It may reduce the number per unit of volume of the mixed 
sewage and water, but the germs are still there, and when taken into the 
system through drinking water, may produce just as serious results to 
just as many people as if no dilution had occurred. Dilution may re- 
duce the chances of any single individual imbibing a fatal germ, but 
the germ itself will be just as dangerous when it is imbibed. In speak- 
ing of germs in this connection, it must be understood, that they are 
not limited to organized bacteria, but are meant to include any toxic 
property of water which may be derived from a sewage source. 
The common opinion that the number of germs in a water sample 
is an index of its potability is apparently not well founded; for in- 
stance, from Dr. Victor C. Vaughan’s extensive and able investigation 
of Michigan’s waters, we note, that water from Torch Lake, Mich., 
containing 5 284 germs per cubic centimeter in a beef tea solution was 
fatal to rats, and well water from the same place, containing only 20 
germs per cubic centimeter in a culture of beef tea, was also fatal to 
rats. Both of these waters were suspected of being the cause of 
typhoid fever. River water from Mount Pleasant, Mich., containing 
3 000 germs per cubic centimeter in a culture of beef tea, had no 
effect on rats, while artesian water from Gladwyn, Mich., contain- 
ing 10 germs per cubic centimeter in the same culture, was fatal-to 
guinea pigs. Lake water from Soudan, Minn., containing 459 germs 
per cubic centimeter in the same culture, had no effect on rats, while 
well water, also from Soudan, containing four germs per cubic centi- 
meter in the same culture, was fatal to rats.* Of course, Dr. 
* “ A Bacteriological Study of Drinking Water,” by Dr. V. C. Vaughan. 139 
HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
Vaughan’s tables contain illustrations the opposite of these, but these 
demonstrate clearly that the number of germs is not a safe index of 
the quality of the water sample (see Sternberg’s “ Manual of 
Bacteriology,” page 558). 
What is desired is not so much that the germs be reduced to a 
small number, as it is to eliminate altogether those of a pathogenic 
character. A man in jumping a brook must accomplish the feat in one 
leap. He cannot jump half way across and rest, and then jump the 
other half at his convenience. So it seems to me in dealing with the 
subject of water purification; we cannot partially purify it, and then 
deliver it to the consumers, without great risk. The bacteria, or other 
cause of disease, must be wholly eliminated, or we will be in the pre- 
dicament of the man Avho attempts to cross the brook in two jumps, 
we will be worse off than if we had remained on the hither side; for 
a partial purification of our drinking water will beget a feeling of 
security which is false and may lead to serious results, while no 
attempt at purification at all will leave us on our guard against a pol- 
luted water, and cause us to avoid the drinking of it altogether. 
In reports of filters tested for the reduction of bacteria it is cus- 
tomary to state the condition of the water in bacteria per cubic centi- 
meter before and after filtration. These are given as the average per 
cubic centimeter and often the number after filtration may be as low 
as three or four, and the writer has seen it stated as low as one per 
cubic centimeter. An ordinary drinking tumbler contains half a pint, 
or about 230 cu. cm., and with the best of filtrated water so low in 
bacteria as one or two per cubic centimeter, a person may imbibe from 
250 to 590 bacteria in drinking a single glass of water, some of which 
may be pathogenic and produce typhoid fever, or some other less dan- 
gerous disease. 
Heretofore the writer has concurred in the popular belief that ordi- 
nary filtration of polluted water through some of the well-known modern 
filters would render it reasonably safe for drinking purposes, but from 
recent investigations of his own he is compelled to abandon this view. 
In the case of Cincinnati, with which he is familiar, the public water 
of which is notoriously unfit for drinking, nearly every public house 
and many business establishments are supplied with some form of sand 
filter or with the Pasteur filter, and yet Cincinnati takes high rank for 
its number of cases and deaths from typhoid fever. HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
140 
Dr. Frederick Kebler, a skillful bacteriologist and eminent physi- 
cian, informs the writer that even the celebrated Pasteur filter is not 
proof against the passage of bacteria; that these attach themselves to the 
outside of the porous porcelain tube, and, by growth and fission, 
eventually appear upon the inside of the tube, and may be found in 
the filtered water; and, from the writer’s own examination of a section 
of a Pasteur filter tube under the microscope, he conceives that the 
pores are large enough to pass bodies of considerable magnitude, i. e., 
from a microscopic standpoint. 
Filtration through a Pasteur tube can accomplish no nitrification 
by bacterial agency, and poisons, or the base of ptomaines in solution, 
are certain to be found in the filtered water. 
It is said by the manufacturers that the porosity of a Pasteur filter 
is equivalent to 1 micron (u), or in. Now, the average 
diameter or thickness of a typhoid bacillus is £ micron (u),* and 
the spores very much less.f From which it appears that the Pasteur 
filter tube is open to the unrestricted passage of the germs and their 
spores, if such should have a habitat in the water. 
There being no nitrification in passing through a Pasteur tube, no 
change can possibly be effected in the organic matter in solution in 
the water. For this, as we understand, can only be accomplished by 
boiling, chemical reactions, or by the nitrifying aqtion of bacteria. In 
this respect a sand filter, properly constructed and worked, should 
yield a better filtrate than a Pasteur filter. But, as sand filters are 
usually worked, it is probable that they not only fail to remove 
organic matter in solution, but some of that in suspension may pass 
through, the only test of the filtrate being its limpidity, and it is 
well known that waters may be clear as crystal and still contain much 
organic matter in suspension, and all it ever had in solution. Clear 
water may be very dangerous water, as witness some of the spring 
waters sold in Boston and vicinity recently tested by Prof. T. M. Drown. J 
The so-called sanitary tests of water by chemists, when unsup- 
ported by careful microscopic tests, and this again fortified or 
checked by tube and plate cultures from the water sample in question, 
cannot be accepted as proof of quality, since “the existence of an 
* Cruikshank. “ Manual of Bacteriology,” 1890. 
Rafter & Baker, “Sewage Disposal,” 1894. 
t Twenty-third Annual Report, Mass. State Board of Health. 141 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
infectious property in water cannot be proved by chemical analysis 
alone.” * 
The Pasteur filter acts simply as a very fine strainer, and is capable 
only of removing impurities in suspension in the water, impurities in 
solution being wholly unaffected by it. If the water upon which the 
filter acts is already chemically pure, and it is desired to remove organic 
matter in suspension, such as animal and vegetable organisms, clay 
silt, etc., then the filter can be relied upon to restrain these in passing 
through the tube. The popular idea, shared by many physicians, that 
the Pasteur filter is a safeguard against all manner of impurities in 
water is a fallacy. A sewage-polluted water may be as dangerous to 
health after it has been run through a Pasteur filter as it was before. 
To satisfy himself upon this question, the writer has run through 
Pasteur filter tubes solutions of aniline purple, sulphate of quinine, 
sugar, starch, sulphate of copper and carmine, and has recovered in 
the filtrate all, or nearly all, of the original weight of the solid in 
solution. In making this test generally 1 gr. of the solid was dissolved 
in 200 cu. cm. of distilled water. 
Of late years many Pasteur and sand filters have been installed in 
Cincinnati, and the general belief is established among the people 
that water from them is deprived of pathogenic properties, and yet 
the case and death rate from typhoid fever seems to be unaffected 
by their use. The writer thinks this is due to the fact that the 
spores or the bacilli of the tyjjlioid germ (if such exist in water in a 
developed state), as well as any poisons in a solution, pass un- 
changed through the pores of the tube. The porosity of the Pasteur 
tube is probably much less than that of any sand filter in use in 
the city, and any matters not intercepted by a Pasteur tube would 
pass with less restriction through the bed of sand. The writer does 
not understand that any claim of nitrification is made for the com- 
mon continuous sand filter, but that this, like the Pasteur, is expected 
to act simply as a very fine strainer. 
Of course, it is unreasonable to suppose that all typhoid cases in 
Cincinnati can be traced to the use of water from Pasteur and other 
filters, but in some cases it can be so traced. A single case wherein 
filtered water alone was used as a beverage raises a just suspicion of 
the capacity of the filter to effectually restrain the typhoid bacillus or 
* Frankland Water Analysis, 1880. HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
142 
its spores from passing through the porcelain tube or bed of sand, or 
raises a doubt of the Eberth bacillus, or any other water bacteria, 
being the true cause of typhoid ; and this suggests that the germ 
theory of disease, so ably expounded by Pasteur and Koch, is not uni- 
versally accepted, many still holding to the Leibig theory, namely, 
“that disease is due to organic matter in process of decay communi- 
cating the elements of decomposition.” 
It is known that a Pasteur filter after it has been in use for some 
time may permit the passage of bacteria, and it will be necessary at 
frequent intervals to subject the tubes to a high temperature for 
the purpose of destroying all organic matter contained in the porous 
porcelain.* 
Dr. Currier has shown that plate cultivations of bacteria can be 
made from water after it has passed through a Pasteur filter,! indicat- 
ing that such water is not sterilized. It has been stated that the 
channels through the Pasteur tube are said by the makers in this 
country to be about 2T000 in., or 1 micron, in diameter, if considered 
as a round perforation. Now, many bacteria are less in diameter than 
a micron (Cruikshank), and the spores of all bacteria are much less in 
diameter than the developed organism. May it not be possible that 
the smaller bacteria or their spores pass unchanged through the porous 
Pasteur tube ? The writer is aware that this theory is contrary to the 
common belief that water absolutely sterile and fit for bacteriological 
purposes is obtained by this mode of filtration, but the question is 
submitted for what it is worth. He feels safe, however, in asserting, 
from his own observation here in Cincinnati, that if absolutely sterile 
water is obtained from Pasteur filters, that the cause of typhoid fever 
cannot be found in the Eberth bacillus, but is due to a specific poison 
or ptomaine in the water, which the filter is powerless to remove. 
From experiments by Drs. Frankland and Tidy! on the sewage of 
London and other English cities, the organic matter in solution will 
range from an equal amount to twice the quantity in suspension. Ex- 
periments by Mr. Dibden on London sewage show the ratio of dis- 
solved to suspended matter to be as 1.00 to 0.77, or, of the organic 
matter in sewage, the larger part is in solution and wholly beyond the 
influence of any filter which acts simply as a strainer. 
* Sternberg, “ Manual of Bacteriology,” 1893. 
Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., Vol. xxiv. 
t Tidy, “Treatment of Sewage,” 1887. 143 
HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
Tlie only effective filtration is that in which the organic matter in 
solution, as well as the suspended matter, is removed from the water, 
and any filter failing to do this cannot be considered a success from a 
hygienic standpoint. 
To determine the character of any water before and after filtration, 
or of any water about to be adopted for public uses, tests should be 
made chemically, for the ammonias, chlorines, nitrites and nitrates, 
for solids and hardness of water, and, if suspected, for mineral poisons, 
microscopically for the organisms and amorphous matter; and bacte- 
riologically for the bacterial life in the sample of water. If the chemi- 
cal test fails to develop any dangerous matter in solution, if the test 
with the microscope shows no low or objectionable organisms and no 
amorphous matter, and the test for bacteria reveals no pathogenic or 
parasitic microbes, such water, in the light of present knowledge, is 
possibly the best for drinking purposes we can hope for. 
The city of Cincinnati has been well supplied for several years with 
mechanical filters, and yet, from statistics gathered by Dr. Stallard, of 
San Francisco, this city, of six in this country and five in England, 
stands at the head in mortality from typhoid fever, having a death rate 
four and a half times as great as that of London, higher than that 
of Philadelphia, and twice as great as Boston. 
Admitting typhoid to be a water-borne disease, then it appears 
from its prevalence in this city (Cincinnati) that the filters in use 
here are worthless in combating the cause. In other words, the 
danger from typhoid seems to be as great after our water has been 
filtered as before. 
The Ohio River, before it reaches Cincinnati, receives the sewage 
and surface drainage of upwards of 100 cities and towns, many 
of which have systems of sewers to facilitate the discharge of their 
sewage into the river or its tributaries. When the stream reaches Cin- 
cinnati the dilute sewage is pumped into the reservoirs and served to 
the people. What is true of the river at Cincinnati is emphasized as 
we proceed down stream, this city enriching the sewage-laden stream to 
the extent of 36 000 000 galls, per day, as a dry weather discharge, 
and, of course, many times that quantity during periods of rainfall, when 
our street wastes are Avashed into the sewer and carried into the river. 
The water supplied to Cincinnati is not worse than that supplied to 
some other cities. But negligence or indifference in this respect by HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
144 
our city does not justify it in any other, and if the same energy that is 
given to politics by the officials of Cincinnati was applied to the secur- 
ing of a supply of pure water, there is no doubt that our water quality 
would be improved, and our alarming death rate from typhoid fever 
be diminished. Here, at least, and possibly in other cities, politics 
and water do not mix, and the harvest of our dearest idols goes on 
without restraint. 
While it is not certainly established that typhoid cannot be ac- 
quired by other processes than water, milk or food, the weight of 
evidence now before us is that it is nearly always brought into the 
system through drinking water. 
Considering typhoid as a water-carried disease, and assuming that 
one who drinks only pure water cannot contract it, then it follows that 
with pure water universally supplied to consumers, typhoid will no 
longer exist. 
The Massachusetts State Board of Health has made extensive ex- 
periments on the filtration of water through beds of sand and loam, 
with very satisfactory results,* but at such slow rates of filtration (23 
to 69 galls, per square foot of sand bed per day) as to discourage the 
adoption of this method in treating large volumes of water. 
A report before the writer of a test of one of the mechanical sand 
filters shows about the same results in the removal of. bacteria at rates 
of filtration as high as 166 000 000 galls, per acre per day, as the Law- 
rence experimental filters give at rates of 2 000 000 galls, per acre per 
day; or, while working at a rate of filtration over 80 times as great, the 
mechanical filter gives the same efficiency in removal of bacteria. 
It is common for physicians in cases of doubt of the purity of a 
water supply to recommend that water for drinking purposes be 
boiled, but the boiling of water renders it insipid and unpalatable, and 
it is claimed by some of the manufacturers of filters that water de- 
prived of certain of its natural gases and solids in solution (as it will 
be by boiling) is not as wholesome as natural waters. The writer has 
been unable to obtain any reliable information of the influence on the 
human system of the harmless salts and gases in solution in natural 
waters, and is in doubt whether the continuous use of boiled water 
as a beverage will be deleterious. Considering that filtered and boiled 
water will be limpid and sterile, and deprived of all toxic properties, 
* Twenty-third Annual Report, Mass. State Board of Health. 145 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
and assuming that such water will not be injurious to the system, may 
not the problem of a safe drinking water finally be solved by combined 
filtration and distillation ? If carried out to its legitimate conclusion, 
this would mean the treatment of a sufficient quantity of water by the 
corporation for drinking and culinary purposes, and the delivery of 
this to consumers through an independent system of comparatively 
small mains. But the expensive apparatus for distillation, the cost of 
duplicating the street mains, even with pipes of small diameter, and 
especially the large annual expense of operation, might at first sight seem 
to prohibit any attempt by this process to purify water on a large scale. 
As this question is sometimes raised in the discussion of qiiality of 
water, it may be of advantage to inquire what will be the cost of pro- 
curing absolutely pure water by filtration and distillation combined. 
Assuming a daily consumption of 1 000 000 galls, of potable water, 
or 347 100 lbs. per hour, an efficiency of 75% for the evaporating ap- 
paratus = 11 250 thermal units per pound of coal, and an average of 
1 124 thermal units required per pound of water evaporated, then 1 lb. 
of coal will distill 10 lbs. of water at atmospheric pressure, and the 
consumption of coal will be 417 tons (2 000 lbs.) at $2 per ton, or 
$834 per day. 
Estimating 3 lbs. of water evaporated per hour per square foot of 
heating surface, then to deal with 1 000 000 galls, per day there will be 
required 115 700 sq. ft. of heating surface, and, allowing 2 000 sq. ft. per 
boiler, will require 58 boilers. Tubular boilers, 7 ft. diameter, 18 ft. 
long, will cost, set and trimmed, $1 800 each, or $104 400 for the re- 
quisite number. Boiler house to accommodate them, $35 000. Al- 
lowing 10 lbs. of steam condensed per square foot of cooling surface in 
condensers, then 35 surface condensers, with 1 000 sq. ft. of cooling 
surface to each, at a cost of $52 500, will be required. Two sets of 
sand filters, each of 1 000 000 galls, daily capacity, will cost $12 000 ; 
filter house, $4 000 ; pipes, valves and sundries, about $20 000 ; total, 
$227,900, or in round numbers, $228 000. 
Annual Expense. 
Interest on cost at 5% $11 400 00 
Sinking Fund to redeem bonds in 40 years, at 4%. 2 398 56 
Fuel, $834 x 365 days 304 410 00 
Labor, 45 men at $2 per day, ) gg ggg qq 
3 men at $5 per day, ) 
Total, not including repairs $356 533 56 HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
146 
and the cost of so purifying water will be about -%• of one cent per 
gallon. 
In the items of cost no allowance is made for pumping, because 
this would be required in any case, whether the water is treated be- 
fore delivery, or pumped without treatment from the source to the 
consumer; nor for cooling water for the surface condensers, because 
the 97 or 98,%' of untreated water may be made to pass through the 
condensers as cooling water without extra cost. 
This, however, is not the whole cost, for allowance must be made 
for a duplicate set of mains of small diameter to distribute this water. 
Estimating 250 miles of mains at an average cost of $4 500 per mile = 
$1 125 000. 
Annual Charge 
Interest on cost at 5% $56 250 
Sinking Fund to redeem bonds in 40 years, at 11 835 
Total $68 085 
Cost per gallon of water treated, about of one cent, or a total cost 
of -nf0- of one cent. 
Tbns, water absolutely free from all germs and their spores, and 
free from all toxic properties and matter in suspension, can be ob- 
tained, if the work of purification is conducted on a large scale, at the 
rate of 8 galls, for one cent. 
Is absolute immunity from typhoid fever, cholera and all other 
water-borne diseases worth this expense ? The writer thinks it is. 
Applying this total annual cost to the city of Cincinnati, with a 
population of 325 000, then the annual cost for the prevention of ty- 
phoid fever in this city, will be about $1 31 per capita. Considering 
the fact that we had over 400 cases of typhoid in the city from Decem- 
ber 12th, 1893, to January 12th, 1894,* it would seem that this annual 
amount per capita is not great for immunity from this disease. What- 
ever may be said in this paper with reference to Cincinnati will 
apply to any other city similarly cursed with a public water supply 
which may, sooner or later, carry disease and death into every 
household. 
From a communication to the writer by one of the principal manu- 
* This statement was made to the writer by one of our leading physicians. 147 
HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
facturers of sand filters in this country upon the method pursued in 
freeing water of bacteria and dissolved organic matters in the contin- 
uous sand filter, he takes the liberty of making the following extract: 
“ Our method of purifying water is both chemical and mechanical, 
and consists in first treating the water with a suitable reagent, so as to. 
render the objectionable matters insoluble and coalescent. We then 
allow five minutes to one-half hour for the coagulation or conglomera- 
tion of the precipitated substances, and finally pass the water through 
a filter bed of white machine-crushed quartz, which much resembles in 
appearance and size granulated sugar. The filtering beds in our filters 
average about 2 ft. in depth, through which the treated water is made 
to pass or percolate. The grains of the filtering material are sharp 
and easily retain the coagulated substances, whatever they may be, 
upon and in the interstices of the bed, so that the water after passing 
through the filtering bed of quartz emerges clear and brilliant and free 
from whatever objectionable impurities were previously aimed to be 
removed. 
“ The proper treatment of the water prior to filtration is as import- 
ant as filtration itself, for it is evident that a filtering bed composed as 
above described would be too free and open to arrest only the grossest 
matters in suspension. A bacterium or spore is, as you know, from 
TuSo-o to tuttoTu in- diameter; while probably the smallest of the inter- 
stices in the bed would not be less than TJo in. in breadth. There 
are, therefore, but two mechanical methods available for retaining 
these germs. One, which is the method followed by the Pasteur, being 
to provide crevices or passages through the filtering material a trifle 
smaller or finer than the smallest bacterium. The other method is to 
coagulate the bacteria into masses large enough to be retained by 
larger passages. To effect this coagulation or conglomeration of the 
bacteria, sulphate of alumina or alum is used. The action of the sul- 
phate of alumina is briefly as follows: When it is added to the water it 
decomposes the bicarbonates of lime and magnesia always present in 
waters to a more or less extent, and the products of the double decom- 
position are sulphate of lime or sulphate of magnesia, and carbonic 
acid gas and hydrate of alumina. The former two are as soluble as 
they were originally, and remain in the water; the latter is, however, 
insoluble, and is precipitated as a white, gelatinous mass, and, being 
coalescent in itself, envelopes the bacteria which adhere to it, and, 
therefore, when this precipitate of alumina is filtered out of the water, 
the bacteria, spores and all the infinitesimal matter in suspension is re- 
tained in the precipitate, and the water, therefore, can be easily and 
rapidly filtered through a filtering bed that would be absolutely 
worthless if no chemical treatment were used. 
“Regarding the dissolved matters would say that these are re- 
moved by precipitating them directly, as, for instance, where lime and HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
148 
magnesia are objectionable, we nse sal soda or soda asli or caustic soda 
to precipitate the lime as carbonate, and this precipitate can be readily 
filtered out with our filter, therefore depriving the water of its lime 
and magnesia which was originally in solution, as it is in some of our 
sparkling artesian waters; as a result, the water is rendered perfectly 
or practically soft. The dissolved organic matters are almost entirely 
removed in the same manner by the alumina at the same time the bac- 
teria are removed. We further remove the dissolved organic matters 
by subjecting the waters to aeration, which consists in forcing air into 
the water, oxidizing the decomposable organic matter which converts 
them into nitrites or nitrates, which are inert and harmless. These 
are the three methods most generally used in the purification of waters, 
although there are cases where special treatment is required. The av- 
erage amount of alumina used does not exceed one-fourth of a grain 
per gallon, which is but 32.55 lbs. per 1 000 000 galls., and costs about 
If cents per pound.” 
Apart from a bed of sand common to all such filters and which acts 
only as a strainer or interceptor of suspended matter, the purification 
of water by the continuous sand filter appears to depend upon—• 
First.—The use of alum as a coagulent, to act upon the bacteria 
and dissolved salts in solution. 
Second.—The use of soda ash or other reagent for softening pur- 
poses. 
Third.—Aeration to oxidize dissolved organic matter and convert 
these into nitrites and nitrates. 
Regarding the use of alum in sand filters much diversity of opinion 
exists. The manufacturers of these filters recommend it because it 
produces a clear filtrate while working the filter at a high rate of deliv- 
ery, but in such uses of the mechanical sand filter as have come under 
his control, the writer has discouraged the corporations or water com- 
panies in the use of alum or any other astringent for precipitating the 
suspended organic matters, fearing that the excessive use of the coagu- 
lent would result in injury to the animal system. He is informed, 
however, by several of the manufacturers of mechanical sand filters 
that no harm can result from a surplus of alum, because any excess 
above that required to precipitate matters in suspension will unite with 
the mineral bases in solution in the Avater and produce insoluble or 
harmless compounds, as sulphate of lime, sulphate of sodium and hy- 
drated alum. Upon the other hand, the excessive use of alum in a 
sand filter in one of our Cincinnati hotels, several years ago, was be- 
lieved at the time to have produced among the regular boarders serious 149 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
bowel troubles, which were said bj physicians in attendance to be due 
to the action of the astringent in the drinking water on the absorbent 
vessels of the stomach and intestinal canal. At best, the alum prob- 
ably acts only on matters in suspension in the water, and has no influ- 
ence on matters in solution * if these are derived from sewage sources. 
The use of sal soda, soda ash or any reagent for softening the water 
would be demanded from a strictly sanitary standpoint only with those 
waters of great hardness, since small quantities of lime and magnesia 
are not generally regarded as injurious to the human system. 
If the results of Prof. Drown’s experiments on the aeration of nat- 
ural waters are to be accepted as conclusive upon this point,f then the 
claim for oxidation of dissolved organic matter and its conversion 
into nitrites and nitrates is a mistake. No such result will follow the 
aeration of water containing dissolved organic matter, but, as Prof. 
Drown shows, aeration may be beneficial in expelling from water ob- 
jectionable gases in solution; as, for instance, sulpliureted hydrogen, 
but no chemical reaction can be expected from simple aeration. 
It will be noticed that the first step in the purification of water de- 
scribed by the writer’s correspondent is the treatment with alum, and 
that the water is at rest for a period of from 5 to 30 minutes, to give 
time to the alum to act as a coagulent and precipitant. This would 
seem to indicate an attempt at intermittent filtration with the con- 
tinuous filter, or would involve the alum treatment of water in settling 
tanks, somewhat after the style of the precipitating tanks used for the 
purification of effluent sewage. 
A successful filter must remove both suspended and dissolved mat- 
ter and the toxic properties in water, otherwise it will be of doubtful 
utility as a sanitary appliance, because the average citizen accepts 
such devices altogether upon the representation of the manufacturer, 
under the impression that he has a safeguard against disease from a 
water source, when in reality he has nothing of the kind, and his 
danger from water-borne disease may probably be as great after he 
filters his drinking water as it was before. 
According to Prof. Baumeister, J we can safely drink a sewage-pol- 
luted water when the sewage and water are mixed in certain propor- 
tions, depending upon the amount of organic matter in the sewage and 
* Parkes’ “ Practical Hygiene,” 1892. 
t Twenty-third Annual Eeport, Mass. State Board of Health. 
J K. Baumeister, Cleaning and Sewering of Cities, 1891. HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
150 
of that previously in the water. But he depends altogether on chem- 
istry for the test of potability of the water, when it is well known that 
chemistry is powerless to reveal infectious properties or bacteria in the 
water. He states, upon German authority, that water may carry 
grains of organic matter to the gallon and still be potable. Looking 
at the question from a chemical standpoint, this may be true, but from 
a broad, sanitary standpoint any organic matter in drinking water 
known to be from a sewage source is unsafe. 
The statement by Prof. Baumeister that sewage containing 29.2 
grains of organic matter to the gallon may be mixed with river water 
containing 1.2 grains of organic matter to the gallon in the ratio of 23 
galls, of water to 1 gall, of sewage, and the mixture be safe for drink- 
ing purposes, seems to me to be very dangerous, because the sewage 
may contain the germs of typhoid fever, which no amount of dilution 
can eliminate. Moreover, advice like this, instead of promoting the 
purity of water supplies and the public health, is calculated to impair 
both. 
It is but fair to state that Prof. Baumeister is looking at the matter 
solely from the standpoint of sewage disposal into running streams, 
and it is doubtful if the selfish motive of ridding a community of sew- 
age by generally the easiest and cheapest method should be allowed to 
prevail when certain disaster to those who may draw their drinking 
water from the stream below is bound to follow. 
In another paragraph Prof. Baumeister says: 
“ The objection may be raised to these computations ” (relating to 
sewage dilution) “that the limiting amounts of organic matter in 
potable water was not fixed under a supposition that a part of it was 
human excrement.” 
But all sewers receive some human dejecta, and this at times may 
contain disease germs, and these germs mixing with a so-called potable 
water are dangerous. Adapting to our purpose the memorable words 
of Mr. Lincoln, any water likely to be adopted for drinking purposes 
may be safe to all people at some times; it may be safe to some people 
at all times, but it may not be safe to all people at all times, and the 
protection of those who may at some time be susceptible to its delete- 
rious influences should warn us against the use of any drinking water 
known to contain organic matter from a sewage source. 
Without regard to the manner in which we obtain our drinking 
water, whether, as Mr. Bafter suggests, “from an absolutely uncon- 151 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
taminated source,” by filtration, or by filtration and distillation com- 
bined, it should never be cooled by melting in it natural ice from an 
unknown source. No objection can be raised to the melting of artifi- 
cial ice from distilled water in our drinking water; and, when this is 
not obtainable, natural ice can be safely used only by placing it in a 
receptacle separate from that containing the water. 
Water is an essential to human existence, 90% of the liquid 
portion of the blood is water, and of the corpuscles or disks in the 
circulation nearly 70%" is water. Of all the many articles of diet upon 
which we subsist, none is so important to the support of life as water. 
With all other articles of subsistence we are usually very careful, not 
only to demand the best, but to insist that they be absolutely safe 
to take into the human system; with water, however, we drink what- 
ever comes most conveniently to hand, with no inquiry, and seldom a 
thought, as to its fitness for the purposes to which it is applied in the 
animal economy; and yet one of the most dangerous diseases, typhoid 
fever, can be established in the human system through the medium of 
drinking water. For, even in the few instances of its being traced to 
the distribution of a polluted milk, it has been shown that the remote 
cause or origin was in a typhoid-tainted drinking water. 
In many States a human life has a fixed legal money value. The 
law of Ohio places the worth of a man’s life at $10 000. If every fatal 
case of typhoid fever in the United States is multiplied by this amount 
the product will reach over $350 000 000 a year, a sum equal to one- 
tliird of the present National debt. And notwithstanding the appalling 
misery and loss of valuable lives from this one disease, typhoid fever 
would be unknown if the plainest and simplest rules of hygiene Avitli 
reference to our drinking water were universally followed. In simple 
terms, if the typhoid germ or bacillus, as it is technically called, were 
excluded from our drinking water, the disease could not be established. 
While typhoid is not the only water-carried disease, to us it is the 
most important, if importance is to be measured by geographical 
extent, continuous presence and annual loss of life by disease. In 
the foregoing discussion of the quality of drinking water, Avhile other 
objections may have been raised against the so-called potable Avater 
with which we are generally supplied, the main objection is to the 
possibility of its introducing the typhoid germ into the system. 
Nature’s process of purifying water is by distillation on a very large HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
152 
scale. The waters of the lakes, rivers and sea are evaporated, the 
vapor ascends from the surface of the earth, is condensed in the 
clouds, and in due time returns to the earth as rainfall. After we have 
received the water again into our lakes and streams, or in the absorb- 
ent soil, we set about to pollute it with our sewage wastes, and, when 
thoroughly polluted, we drink it. This may be a very coarse way of 
stating the case, but is it not the fact ? Nature attempts to supply us 
with a water free from dangerous organic matter and toxic properties, 
but we will not preserve it in this condition. 
In regard to past efforts at water purification, and the attempt to 
build a standard of purity upon the reduced numbers of bacteria in 
the filtrate, certain facts have been established in connection with 
bacteria in water. Thus, the number is not a safe index of the quality 
of Avater. Well Avaters containing so feAv as four bacteria per cubic 
centimeter have been fatal to the lower animals, Avhile lake Avater 
containing as many as 3 000 bacteria per cubic centimeter has pro- 
duced no ill effects on the loAver animals. Upon the other hand the 
number of bacteria is a fair indication of the amount of dissolved or- 
ganic matter in Avater, but the determination of this by chemical tests 
is more reliable than to infer it from the number of bacteria. Generally, 
however, the Avater bacteria bear a close relation in numbers to the 
amount or proportion of dissolved organic matter. 
While many attempts have been made and several Avell-knoAvn 
methods proposed to differentiate the typhoid bacillus from other 
bacteria found in Avater, none of these seems to be reliable, and the 
only certain test of the pathogenic properties of any suspected bac- 
teria is by inoculation. 
The ordinary water bacteria are not regarded as pathogenic, and 
pathogenic germs in a water sample are held to be adventitious, and 
not native to the water. This will partly account for the danger from a 
Avater containing few bacteria, and for the innocuous properties of some 
Avaters containing many bacteria, and emphasizes the belief now gain- 
ing ground, that numbers should not be received as an evidence of 
quality. 
The introduction of a feAv water bacteria into a sample of distilled 
Avater may be folloAved by a large groAvth of the same species, but these 
cannot endure for many days, for lack of nourishment. If the Avater 
Avas absolutely sterile, and no organic matter imparted to it from the 153 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
atmosphere while introducing the bacteria, then no growth could occur, 
and in a short time the bacteria introduced would perish for lack of 
pabulum. 
The typhoid bacillus and the cholera spirillum are not indigenous 
to water. Water is simply the carrier of these germs of disease, but 
owing to the difficulty of identifying them, especially the typhoid 
germ, no one can certainly say whether a suspected water contains the 
germ until inoculation tests have been made; and if pathogenic germs 
are found, then an expert judgment only can infer the presence of the 
Eberth bacillus, or some other bacteria having the same properties. 
However, if in the inoculation experiments simultaneous tests are 
made from pure cultures of the suspected bacillus and with the Eberth 
bacillus obtained from the spleen of one dead of typhoid fever, and 
the symptoms of the animals experimented upon are substantially the 
same, then it will be safe to declare the suspected water bacteria as the 
typhoid germ, even though its morphological and biological character- 
istics may not agree with the Eberth germ. Thus it may be a variety 
of the Eberth germ, or it may be a distinct germ capable of producing 
the same effects in the animal system. To illustrate this in a homely 
way, no one is likely to mistake beer for whiskey or vice verm, but 
both are known to produce intoxication. In like manner, two patho- 
genic germs may differ in their morphological and biological features 
enough to appear to be distinct species of bacteria, and at the same 
time possess similar toxicogenic properties. 
It is unfortunate that citie3 are so unwilling to conduct such inves- 
tigations of their water supply during epidemics of typhoid as will 
clearly demonstrate the condition of the drinking water at all times. 
As an illustration, one city of several is mentioned. During the later 
part of the year 1892 and early part of 1893 St. Louis was visited by 
an epidemic of typhoid fever, which increased the annual death rate 
from this cause 200 per cent. Investigations were made by the city 
authorities which clearly established the fact that the disease was prac- 
tically confined to a district almost wholly supplied with water from 
the city mains ; but, excepting this inquiry, which traced the cause to 
the Mississippi River water, no tests were made of the quality of the 
water at the time of the epidemic, or to compare it with the river water 
at other times when there was no epidemic of typhoid. There is no 
doubt that careful bacteriological tests would have shown the typhoid HILL ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
154 
bacillus of Dr. Ebertli or Dr. Vaughan in greater numbers than usual 
in the water, or that the toxic properties developed by the germ when 
taken into the human system were then much more virulent than at 
other times. 
To solve the question of an absolutely safe drinking water, the 
filtration to clarify the water should be combined with some process of 
distillation, and we shall have then, not only pure water, but water 
that looks pure, which is quite an object when you undertake to edu- 
cate people upon the question of water quality. 
As a matter of interest in connection with the subject of water 
quality and typhoid fever, the writer has compiled the statistics of 
typhoid from a number of our larger cities for the years 1890-91-92-93, 
giving the population, cases (when reported), deaths, and deaths per 
1 000 of population (see Table A). 
A comparison of the statistics in the table furnishes some interest- 
ing information. Thus the water drank in New York and Brooklyn 
seems to have been superior to that furnished to the city of Boston. 
Comparing Detroit with Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Milwaukee, it 
appears that, while all depend upon the Great Lakes for their supply, 
the water drawn from the Detroit Biver is better than that from in- 
take cribs set in the lakes a few miles from, the shore, or at the foot of 
the lake, as at Buffalo. As a rule, the cities taking their water supply 
from the large rivers suffer more from typhoid fever that those that 
depend upon impounded water, like New York and Boston. 
In Table B are given the data from epidemics of typhoid in the 
cities of Lowell, Lawrence and Springfield, Mass.; St. Louis, Mo., and 
Pittsburgh, Pa. The title and captions of the table fully explain its 
contents. Assuming the report of cases to be correct, the mortality 
from this disease, as shown by the column of percentage of fatal 
cases, is much greater in this country than in cities abroad. 155 
HILL OH THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
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962 530 
1 092 168 
458 350 
260 000 
255 000 
285 000 
309 243 
230 000 
1 400 000 
245 000 
460 000 
254 000 
330 000 
305 oon 
161 000 
T(Tff 
Tiny 
Afe 
Tiny 
rife 
Tiyiy 
1 
Tiyiy 
Tiny 
life 
ItSu 
fjfe 
Tjny 
Tiyiy 
Tiyiy 
Ton 
Tiyiy 
148 
381 
165 
456 
224 
187 
294 
112 
153 
140 
670 
95 
514 
39 
106 
134 
135 
487 397 
1 891 306 
990 891 
1 115 562 
473 193 
285 000 
264 000 
300 000 
322 932 
230 000 
1 500 000 
260 000 
500 000 
254 000 
330 000 
310 000 
161 000 
30 
Tiyiy 
tVu 
tVu 
tVu 
Any 
Tiyiy 
Tiny 
nyiy 
Tiyiy 
Tifiy 
tiny 
•^TSiy 
liny 
fife 
i‘-H) 
84 
Tiyiy 
1 100 
1 005 
1 047 
1 145 
2 398 
461 
182 
41 
1 008 
73 
155 
50 
176 
197 
142 
277 488 
230 000 
1 100 000 
220 000 
450 000 
254 000 
300 000 
296 GOO 
161 000 
Tlfe 
rvu 
Afc 
ifife 
34 
T7T(J 
Tlfe 
Afe 
T?ny 
Tlfe 
349 
376 
281 
166 
442 
196 
43G 
382 
3 624 
270 
245 
214 
TABLE A. 
Typhoid Fever Statistics. 
From the principal cities of the United States.—Compiled from Official Reports of Health Departments. HILL OH THE QUALITY OE WATER SUPPLIES. 
156 
TABLE B. 
Typhoid Fever. 
Statistics Showing Fatality of Epidemics in Lowell, Lawrence and 
Springfield, Mass., and Annually for Pittsburgh and St. Louis. 
Locality. 
Date. 
Cases. 
Deaths. 
Percentage 
of fatal cases. 
47 
10 
21 
95 
9 
9.5 
<< 
171 
29 
17 
<« 
159 
24 
15.1 
“ 
January, 1891 
78 
17 
22 
Total and averages.... 
650 
89 
16.2 
19 
3 
16 
70 
10 
14.3 
tl 
38 
10 
26.3 
“ 
February, 1893 
14 
7 
50 
Total and averages.... 
141 
30 
21.3 
14 
4 
28.6 
32 
9 
28.1 
ti << 
72 
3 
4.2 
“ “ 
February, 1893 
23 
12 
52 
Total and averages 
141 
28 
20 
Springfield, Mass 
July, August, September, 1892. 
155 
32 
20.6 
April, 1892; March 1893 
3 624 
514 
14.2 
70 
ii 
15.7 
it 
142 
23 
16.4 
it 
261 
48 
18.5 
it 
1 923 
124 
6.4 
it 
945 
205 
21 7 
tt 
114 
42 
36.8 
1891 
1 047 
248 
23.7 
1892 
1 145 
256 
22.4 
** 
1893 
2 398 
294 
12.3 157 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
DISCUSSION. 
Desmond FitzGekadd, M. Am. Soc. 0. E.—A paper ontlie quality of 
water supplies needs no apology to this Society when we consider the 
army of engineers who are engaged in works of construction and im- 
provement connected with the furnishing of pure water to cities and 
towns. Mr. Hill has well stated in the opening of his paper that, 
however much other sanitarians may aid the cause of good water, to 
the engineer must finally come the designing of works for public sup- 
plies. If there is one fact more gratifying than another to sanitary 
engineers, it is that so much attention is now paid to questions con- 
nected with the quality of water. It was only a few years ago that the 
question of quantity was the principal one to which water engineers 
devoted their studies. Probably few outside of the specialists realize 
how varied are the questions that enter into this subject of the quality 
of water. 
We have to begin with a large classification of waters, each of 
which is subject to its own particular kind of troubles, and many 
of these are so subtle that it requires a lifetime to understand them. 
But I do not know of a nobler occupation or profession to which a 
man can devote his life than that of the improvement of water 
supplies. 
It does not seem to me that we depend upon seeing the actual 
germs of disease in the water with the microscope or by inoculation 
from water samples in order to satisfy ourselves that they are present. 
We have had in Massachusetts several epidemics of typhoid fever in 
cities taking their water from sources infected Avith the typhoid 
bacillus where the death rate has immediately declined on cutting off 
the polluted water. A remarkable case has recently been presented 
fully by Mr. Mills before the New England Water Works Association 
in a description of a new filtering plant installed in LaAvrence to rid 
the water of typhoid germs. 
I Avas recently called to a small toAvn containing 1 300 people, in 
which over 100 inhabitants Avere down Avith typhoid of a malignant 
type, and of these more than 10% died. In a large institution 
situated in the toAvn with a separate water supply of its OAvn not one 
person Avas taken sick with the disease. Happily I had no difficulty 
in persuading this toAvn to throAV aAvay its source of supply and adopt 
another pure and abundant source close at hand. Under these con- 
ditions, there were so many circumstances pointing to the water as the 
source of infection that it did not require identification of the actual 
bacillus in the water. 
In many cases a great deal of study is given to purifying a water, DISCUSSION' ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
158 
when the same amount of study put into the question of preventing 
the pollutions from getting into it would do more good. During 
the past ten years we have devoted a great deal of time and money 
to this end on the Boston Water Works. The sewage from many 
of the towns has been pumped entirely out of the water-sheds and 
improved methods of construction have been adopted for the basins 
and storage reservoirs for the purpose of improving the quality 
of the water. We are now engaged in studying swamps existing on 
the water-sheds and providing plans for draining them, and many 
observations have been made upon the color of the waters coming from 
swamps and estimates formed of the probable colors after the improve- 
ments have been carried out. There is still, however, something to be 
said in favor of filtration in the case of almost any surface supply, 
however well guarded at the sources, and I look in the future to see 
filtration plants in more general use. 
As is the case in many other large cities, we obtain our water sup- 
ply in Boston by collecting and holding back water from streams dur- 
ing the wet months of the year, in order to distribute it during periods 
of deficiency in the flow or of long periods of drought. We have, of 
course, designed our storage so as to cover the longest drought in the 
past, of which we have a record, and we have made our storage suffi- 
cient to carry us through that drought; but it has been strongly im- 
pressed upon my mind recently that this is not sufficient to provide a 
uniform quality of good water. In order that this may be accomplished 
we must have a much larger amount of storage. 
As is well known, surface water imjDroves in quality when kept for 
a long time in thoroughly constructed basins which are free from 
organic matter. Now, when water is drawn out from these storage 
reservoirs at the end of the period of drought and the streams begin 
to resume a larger flow, then the city has to be supplied with water 
which has not had the advantage of long periods of storage. From 
this cause it is not possible always to distribute water of a uniform 
quality, unless a large surplus of storage is supplied, and it seems to 
me important that where a city or town is provided with water by 
means of equalizing the supply of a stream or by drawing from a nat- 
ural lake, it is necessary that a very much larger amount of storage 
should be provided than that necessary simply to carry the town or 
city through the drought. 
If the reports of the Boston Water Supply Department for the past 
few years are examined, it will be found that the number of organisms 
existing monthly at the surface, in the middle, and at the bottom of 
all our lakes and storage and distributing reservoirs are published in 
tables, and that the colors of these same waters and their temperature 
are given. These monthly averages are made up from weekly exam- 
inations. It will also be found that we have a well-equipped laboratory 159 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
devoted to microscopic work, and that we have a considerable filtra- 
tion plant for the purpose of experimenting upon different methods of 
filtration. In fact, we spend from $12 000 to $15 000 a year upon 
experiments and analyses connected with questions affecting the purity 
of the water. This work has naturally revealed many facts of which 
we were not before aware. There may be some who think that money 
invested in this way is thrown away; but I think we may very well 
leave the future to decide this question. We feel, in Bo don, that we 
have made a good investment in this work. 
It seems to me questionable whether Mr. Hill’s figures for the cost 
of separating the drinking water from the rest of a supply are suffi- 
ciently large. It has not been considered that we can accomplish this 
result in Boston with so small an expenditure per gallon. 
Aeration has been referred to in this paper. It has been found on 
the Boston Water Works that no amount of aeration will affect the 
quality of the water, although we have more organic matter in the 
water than I should like to see. The truth is that the water contains 
sufficient oxygen in its natural condition, so that the addition of any 
more has no effect whatever. On the other hand it is true that there 
are many waters which are so deficient in oxygen and in which the 
organic matter is in such a condition that aeration produces wonderful 
effects in a very short time. 
It does not seem possible to provide general rules which will apply 
to all waters. However much we do not know, there is one thing of 
which we feel sufficiently certain, and that is as to what good water 
really is; and this is the goal upon which we should keep our eyes and 
the standard to which Ave should work. 
Chables Feancis, M. Am. Soc. C. E.—What may be called the germ 
of the typhoid bacillus may be generally found in the larger intestines 
of healthy people. These germs being introduced into the upper or 
smaller intestines through the medium of drinking water and finding 
there suitable pabulum, develop into the time typhoid bacillus. 
William E. Woethen, Past President Am. Soc. C. E.—As engi- 
neer in charge I have just completed a small Avater works at Southamp- 
ton, L. I., in Avhich the principle has been adopted of not exposing the 
water from the driven Avells to the light till it is drawn by the takers. 
From the wells the Avater passes through the pumps into air-tight 
receivers or tanks of steel 6 ft. 6 ins. diameter and about 50 ft. long. 
There are three tanks Avhich are filled at the maximum pressure of 
nearly 100 lbs. One of these receivers is open alAvays to the village 
service ; the other tivo are closed under the 100-lb. pressure. When 
the pressure in the first receiver falls to nearly 40 lbs., one of the 
reserved tanks is opened to raise the pressure in the mains and after 
another fall the third tank is opened. For fire purposes the tanks can 
be opened and adequate pressure secured promptly. DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
160 
The water is strongly aerated by the compressors, which maintain 
the air pressure and volume, and the water is cool for domestic use. 
I am anxious to see its sanitary effects, as it will probably prevent the 
development of conferva?, and shall look to the report on vital statis- 
tics. With regard to the growth of microscopic organisms, I do not 
know of any standard authority, but think that sterilization should be 
used carefully, that “ numerous bacteria exist in the digestive canal 
of a man in good health, and that they are not only innoxious, but they 
play an active part in gastric digestion and especially in the transmu- 
tation of albumens into peptones that they are necessary for the sup- 
port of the white blood corpuscle and consequently of the red. My sug- 
gestion would be, sustain your own phagocyte and look to the effects as 
they can be seen naturally rather than to the present results of micro- 
scopic observation. It takes something more than microbes to pro- 
duce ptomaines, there is a necessity of some pabulum and condition, 
and good health must depend largely on the surroundings and habits. 
Charles H. Snow, Assoc. M. Am. Soc. C. E. (by letter).—Mr. 
EitzGerald has spoken of typhoid fever in a small town where those 
not using the common water supply were totally exempt from the dis- 
ease. Such instances are common and furnish the most forcible ar- 
gument for good water kept good. An interesting incident of the same 
kind was afforded by a small town in which I was located for some time. 
The town was upon the sides of, and in the valley between, two hills. 
It had two sources of water supply. Mine water pumped from 
about 500 ft. below the surface, and surface water- collected in wells. 
The mine water was freely given to all who sent for it, and those using 
it were not confined to any particular district, but were more or less 
scattered throughout the entire town. A miner having contracted 
typhoid fever elsewhere sickened upon one of the hill slopes, whence 
the fever presently spread over the entire population of 4 000 to 
5 000 people. In one house sixteen, cases developed. There were 
no instances of fever among those using mine water. As an illus- 
tration of the ignorance frequently displayed respecting water, while 
the fever was prevalent wells sealed by the Local Health Board were 
broken into by families insisting on the use of their own supply. 
I also recall seeing people dipping water from a small brook running 
through the town, which was practically a sewer, that a trip to the 
mine for water might be saved. 
As the province of the physician is to cure disease, so that of the 
engineer is to prevent it, and a more pronounced method of popular 
instruction would be found useful in accomplishing this result, and 
might come within his province. 
S. Whinery, M. Am. Soc. G. E. (by letter).—Mr. Hill has given the 
Society a very valuable paper upon the subject of which he treats. 
"While he does not claim that there is much in it that is new, he pre- 161 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
sents a valuable summation of tbe present state of knowledge on the 
subject, and some pertinent suggestions as to tbe sanitary defects in 
present methods of water supply, and the means that are available for 
securing pure drinking water, and of avoiding its contamination before 
and after being collected or stored for use. From the evidence now in 
our possession, the problem of securing an uncontaminated supply of 
water for domestic use, is not only not yet practically solved, but is 
every day becoming more difficult of satisfactory solution. Unless 
collecting grounds are fully controlled, and carefully watched and 
guarded, there can be no certainty that uncontaminated water will be 
secured. As the population of the country increases and land becomes 
more valuable, it will become more difficult and expensive to secure 
control of collecting grounds, and to guard the supply against contam- 
ination. Even under the most favorable conditions, the danger of 
pollution will be very considerable. 
The evidence is accumulating that we cannot rely on artificial fil- 
tration to remove from drinkiug water the germs and their spores that 
cause specific diseases. It was for a time supposed that filters of the 
Pasteur type could be depended upon to entirely remove deleterious 
elements from water, however polluted. It is now conclusively proven 
that in this we were but leaning on a broken reed. Combined filtra- 
tion and oxidation by the use of filtering beds of sand and coarser 
materials has given great promise of success, as recently conducted in 
a painstaking and scientific manner under the careful supervision of 
competent experts and engineers. What the result would be under or- 
dinary conditions of practice is at least problematic. The possibili- 
ties of lack of intelligence, carelessness, and management under 
engineers or superintendents more noted as ward politicians than as 
civil engineers or sanitary experts, are not pleasant to contemplate. 
Probably very few of us, in the present state of knowledge on the sub- 
ject, would be willing to trust the health, and possibly the lives, of 
oursdlves and our families to the use of drinking water known to be, 
in its natural condition, polluted and dangerous, if the only safeguard 
was purification by this method, under such management as too fre- 
quently controls the water supply of our cities. 
The possibility of securing a perfectly safe water supply from deep 
wells in or near a great many of our cities, especially those situated 
within the glaciated regions of the country, is worthy, I believe, of far 
more attention than has been given it in this country. The evidence is 
accumulating of the existence of a great number of considerable 
streams of water flowing in the beds of pre-glacial streams, through 
beds of sand and detritus, so far below the present surface that the 
water has been subjected to the most perfect filtration, so that it is 
pure and wholesome beyond question. Such water supplies are often, 
though not so frequently, found in regions outside of those subjected DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
162 
to glacial action. The possibility of securing such supplies should be 
thoroughly investigated in the vicinity of every city where there is 
any doubt about the purity of the supply of surface water. To this 
end, the discovering and mapping out of pre-glacial water-courses 
should receive more attention than it has heretofore, over the whole 
region of glacial action. 
To me, the most important and suggestive part of Mr. Hill’s 
paper is that relating to the purifying of water by boiling and dis- 
tillation. This is not, of course, a new idea, but it is recalled to the 
attention of engineers by Mr. Hill at a most opportune time. Distil- 
lation is Nature’s own method of water purification. Our standard of 
purity of potable waters is, and will continue to be, water distilled by 
the heat of the sun and condensed from the clouds by Nature’s pro- 
cesses. The cup of water we collect as it falls from the clouds is, 
barring the slight possibility of contamination by germs and impurities 
floating in the air, absolutely pure and wholesome for domestic use. 
No matter how impure it may have been before its distillation, it may 
now be used with perfect safety. It is possible that a portion of it 
may have come from the filthiest cesspools, another portion from the 
excrement from fever hospitals or the waste from diphtheria wards, 
and still another portion may have come from the filthy haunts of 
cholera patients in the far East, yet we may now drink it with 
impunity. 
Distillation is the one method of water purification that all are 
agreed is perfectly effective and reliable. 
The only question about the practicability of this method is that 
relating to cost. Mr. Hill has treated of this part of the subject with 
considerable detail, and has shown that a supply of absolutely pure 
water for domestic purposes can be secured at a cost, which, consider- 
ing the great benefit that would result, is certainly worth incurring. 
I believe, however, that the cost may be materially reduced below Mr. 
Hill’s estimate. It will be noticed that he contemplates condensing 
and cooling the distilled water by surface condensers cooled by the 97 
or 98% of water that must be provided for purposes other than drink- 
ing. This would mean the wastage of all the heat given up in the con- 
densation and cooling of the distilled water. If, instead of thus wasting 
this heat, it be utilized for heating the water to be distilled, the process 
would be cheapened to that extent. This might be readily accom- 
plished by passing the steam to be condensed and the hot condensed 
water through pipes surrounded by the incoming water on its way to 
the boilers. Just how much of the original heat could thus be returned 
to the boilers, I am not prepared to say; but it is, I think, safe to say 
that 40% of it could be thus saved and re-utilized. Assuming that this 
is possible, it would not on.ly reduce in the same ratio the cost of fuel and 
attendance, but the cost of the plant for distillation also. Making 163 
DISCUSSION' ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
such modifications as this assumption will allow, and making some 
other changes in Mr. Hill’s estimate as seem warranted, we shall have 
the following as the cost of treating 1 000 000 galls, per day: 
Cost of plant for distillation $135 000 
Cost of separate system of pipes for a city of 
160 000 population 450 000 
Cost of plant for aeration of water if thought 
necessary 15 000 
Total $600 000 
Cost of Operating for one Year. 
Interest on investment at 4 per cent $24 000 
Repairs and renewals at 5 per cent 30 000 
Cost of fuel 91 500 
Cost of labor and superintendence 24 000 
Total $169 500 
which, divided by 365 000 000 galls., gives as the cost of purification 
per 1 000 000 galls, about $465. 
I have no data at hand as to what amount of water would be neces- 
sary for drinking and such other domestic purposes as would insure 
freedom from specific diseases caused by contaminated water, but I 
think it would be safe to assume that the amount would not exceed 6 
galls, per capita. On this assumption 1 000 000 galls, would be suffi- 
cient for a city having a population of 160 000, and the cost per capita 
per day would be less than three-tenths of 1 cent, and the cost for 
a family of five persons would be lj cents per day, or about $5 50 per 
year. 
It is to be anticipated that the most serious difficulty in operating 
such a system will be found in the proper regulation of the use of the 
purified water. On the one hand, some families would be disposed 
to use the pure water for other than the purposes for which it is in- 
tended, and others, either from carelessness or to avoid the cost, would 
be likely to omit its use. The first difficulty might be met by the use 
of meters at every house, and for the use of such meters a reasonable 
rental would have to be charged. 
The opposite difficulty could, perhaps, be best met by requiring by 
municipal ordinance the use of the pure water for certain stipulated 
purposes, and making it the duty of sanitary inspectors to see that the 
ordinance was complied with. DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
164 
What I have said is intended only as an outline of what might be 
done in this way toward the furnishing of an absolutely pure supply 
of water for domestic use. The subject is of such great importance 
as to merit, in my opinion, the most careful consideration and investi- 
gation of the system suggested, by water-works’ experts and sanitary 
engineers. 
William P. Mason, Esq. (by letter).—The author of this paper 
appears to be a believer in the power of water to spread disease, but 
some of the statements and quotations advanced by him would 
certainly go far to unsettle the public mind and cause lack of faith 
in the teachings of some able masters. 
He says : “While water is held to be a carrier of disease germs, the 
writer is not aware that any investigator has ever claimed to have seen 
these germs in water, even under the highest powers of the micro- 
scope ; and the evidence that water is such a carrier of pathogenic 
bacteria is obtained by inoculation from water samples of nutrient 
media in test tubes or on culture plates.” 
‘ ‘ The typhoid bacillus in water has never been seen Avith the micro- 
scope Avithout previous cultivation of the germ in nutrient media. 
Nor has it ever been demonstrated, so far as the writer is aware, 
that the presence of bacilli in water can be proven, excepting by deli- 
cate and difficult bacteriological processes.” 
That single individuals of the Ebertli bacillus should escape direct 
detection is hardly to be considered surprising, in ATieAV of the enor- 
mous volumes of water in which they are suspended. HoAvever diffi- 
cult the processes of modern bacteriology may be for a tyro, it is 
hardly just to consider them unreliable in the hands of such experts 
as Koch, Pasteur or Eberth; and, if any one of these men, or of many 
others avIio might be named, should state that he had secured pure 
cultures of a specific germ under circumstances which excluded the 
possibility of extraneous contamination, we should be exceedingly 
liable to believe him. 
Again : “ It is well understood that the infective element of typhoid 
fever can be present in water and the chemical test be poAverless to 
disclose it.” 
True enough, but it does not complete the story. During an in- 
vestigation folloAving a serious outbreak of typhoid fever in the Tees 
valley, England, the medical officer of the Local Government Board, 
London, caused preparation to be made of samples of pure Avater to 
which small quantities (50 and 25 parts per 1 000 000) of typhoid dejecta 
had been added, and these samples were then submitted to prominent 
Avater analysts for examination. No results upon Avhich an adverse re- 
port could be based Avere obtained. The contaminated waters were pro- 
nounced pure. It must be remembered that the polluting material, as 
Aveighed, being very largely Avater, the pollution appeared greater than 
it reallyAvas. Fifty parts perl 000 000 of the typhoid dejecta corre- 
sponded to only 4 parts per 1 000 000 of total dry residue. As a natural 165 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
result of these experiments, the purely chemical methods of water 
examination received very severe criticism, and the advocates of the 
exclusively bacteriological processes were correspondingly elated, for 
here were known instances of fatal contamination which the chemists 
had failed to diagnose. Let this, however, be said in defence. In 
cases as they occur in practice a serious addition of typhoid dejecta 
has much that is associated with it of a comparatively inoffensive 
character, but which reacts with the chemical reagents and tells the 
tale of sewage contamination, although the analyst cannot venture to 
state the exact nature of the source from which the pollution is 
derived. 
Not long since the writer claimed that the river water furnishing a 
large eastern city was contaminated with up-stream sewage, the 
opinion having been based, not alone upon an analysis of the water at 
the intake, for the river was large and the consequent dilution great, 
but upon the difference between that analysis and one of the water 
taken from above the sewage inflow. The difference was small, but it 
was noticeable, and there was no other sufficient explanation of its 
existence than the one given. Later on typhoid fever broke out in 
the upper valley, and epidemics developed not only in the city in 
question, but in all the neighboring towns using the river water for 
supply. Closely related cities and towns, which received their Avater 
from other sources, were not affected. Space does not permit of giv- 
ing details, showing how clearly the case stood against the river water, 
but it is interesting to note that typhoid germs were most carefully 
sought for and were not found. That they Avere nevertheless present, 
there can be but little doubt. Chemical analysis in this instance did 
certainly not detect the presence of typhoid, but what it did do Avas 
to Avarn the people, months before the typhoid appeared, that they 
Avere drinking diluted sewage, and that they must beAvare of the time 
Avhen that sewage should come from pathogenic sources. 
The paper in question goes on to say : 
“ The popular impression that the Koch, or Kinkier and Prior, 
comma bacillus is the cause of cholera is fallacious, or, at least, not 
proven. The same remark applies to the typhoid bacillus of Eberth. 
The proof is still Avanting that this Avill cause typhoid. ” 
This last is a quotation from Sternberg’s “ Manual of Bacteriology,” 
but it is very misleading because it is incomplete. 
What Sternberg really says is this: 
“Recent researches support the vieAv that the bacillus described 
by Eberth in 1880 bears an etiological relation to typhoid fever; 
and pathologists are disposed to accept this bacillus as the veritable 
germ of typhoid fever, notAvithstanding the fact that the final proof 
that such is the case is still Avanting. 
“This final proof Avould consist in the production in man or in one of 
the loAver animals of the specific morbid phenomena which characterize 
the disease in question, by the introduction of pure cultures of the DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
166 
bacillus into the body of a healthy individual. Evidently it is im- 
practicable to make the test upon man, and thus far we have no satis- 
factory evidence that any one of the lower animals is subject to the 
disease as it manifests itself in man.” 
Now, that is a very different statement, and conveys a meaning 
greatly unlike the one suggested by the partial quotation referred to. 
The paper again says : 
“Absolutely healthy persons have been known to reject the Eberth 
bacillus in their excrement, showing such, probably, to be in the 
intestines at all times.” 
This is an error. The bacillus coli communis, which closely 
resembles the typhoid bacillus, is constantly present in the intestines 
of healthy persons, and may lead to confusion, but no position such 
as the above quotation indicates is now occupied by bacteriologists. 
In this connection Sternberg (an authority frequently quoted in the 
the paper) says : “No competent bacteriologist, so far as I know, has 
claimed to find the Eberth bacillus in the faeces of healthy individ- 
uals.” 
As to the doubt thrown upon the correctness of the view that 
Koch’s comma bacillus is the cause of cholera, the work of Sternberg 
will hardly endorse it. In this connection Sternberg says: 
‘ ‘ The etiological relation of this spirillum to Asiatic cholera is 
now generally admitted by bacteriologists.” And also : “The most 
satisfactory evidence that this spirillum is able to produce cholera 
in man is afforded by an accidental infection which occurred in Berlin 
in the case of a young man who was one of the attendants at the 
Imperial Board of Health when cholera cultures were being made for 
the instruction of students.” 
As to the statement in the paper that “ fatal cases of typhoid have 
been attended with none of the Eberth bacillus in the faeces, or in the 
intestines, the seat of the disease,” it is to be noted that Gaffky’s inves- 
tigations show it to be by no means a serious objection. He considers 
the technical difficulties surrounding a hunt for the bacillus, in some 
few instances, so considerable as to readily account for a small per- 
centage of negative results; and he cites instances where he found the 
“germ ” after an amount of patient search which extended far beyond 
the point where the average observer would have ceased work and 
placed a negative report upon record. 
Finally the paper has much to say upon the imperfections of mod- 
ern filters and the danger of using water therefrom. It goes without 
saying that pure water is better than purified water, but then the 
former is often unattainable and we have to do with the latter or go 
without. 
Especial stress is laid upon the fact that even when the filtration is 
so successfully accomplished as to leave in the filtrate only one or two 
bacteria per cubic centimeter, yet “ a person may imbibe from 250 to 
500 bacteria in drinking a single glass of water, some of which may be 167 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
pathogenic and produce typhoid fever or some less dangerous disease.” 
Such a degree of excellence in filtration as the obtaining of a filtrate 
with only one or two bacteria per cubic centimeter is, indeed, rarely 
attained; yet the public have a right to look with confidence upon a 
plant which does not pretend to accomplish half that amount of 
purification. 
Consider for a moment what the Altona filters did for that city dur- 
ing the Hamburg cholera epidemic of 1892. The Altona water was 
taken from the Elbe River at a point below the outfalls of sewers car- 
rying the cholera-infected sewage of 800 000 people. Yet Altona had 
no cholera (except imported cases), while Hamburg was scourged by 
it. The cities are practically one, a stranger being unable to tell the 
dividing line. 
Take the numbers showing the efficiency of the Altona filters during 
one month of 1892. 
The bacteria in the raw Elbe water per cubic centimeter varied from 
9 370 to 41 140, with an average of 28 667. The average number in the 
filtered water was 90. This meant a removal of 99.69/0 of germs of all 
kinds, still remaining. The filtrate was by no means sterilized, 
but the city was protected from a cholera epidemic under circum- 
stances trying in the extreme. As to the efficiency of sand filtration 
for water purification, the following figures are given for results found 
at the Lawrence experiment station, the filters having been operated 
with water containing known quantities of bacteria: 
Rate in gallons per acre daily. 
Kind of bacteria added. 
Per cent, removed. 
1 500 000 
B typhi. abdom. 
99.93 
3 000 000 
B. prodigiosus. 
99.95 
This reduction of the number of germs in a given volume of water 
is possibly equivalent to a dilution of the unfiltered water with a very 
large volume of a pure supply, and in this connection the writer of the 
paper says: “ Dilution may reduce the chances of any single individual 
imbibing a fatal germ, but the germ itself will be just as dangerous 
when it is imbibed.” 
This is, doubtless, true, if the individual be especially susceptible, 
for it has been experimentally shown that a single germ may produce 
fatal results when injected into an animal very prone to the special 
disease, but as it has been also shown that when the animal is not very 
susceptible, the “ dose” of bacteria has to be enormously increased to 
produce any result. We incline to believe that some similar reason 
may account for the apparent immunity of that fraction of a commu- 
nity which has been equally exposed, but which escapes contagion. 
What the paper says regarding the unsatisfactory results observed DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATeU SUPPLIES. 
168 
where household Alters are in use is unfortunately very true, but the 
fault is more commonly with the attendant than with the filter. The 
common belief is that a filter, once established, is good for all time, 
and I could tell tales of what I have seen in otherwise well-organized 
establishments that would stagger belief. I do not approve of general 
household filtration, as I believe purification can be better and more 
cheaply done on the large scale by the municipal authorities, but I can- 
not think that the Pasteur filter should be swept aside like the worthless 
contrivance the paper calls it. My experience is that, with proper 
care, it is efficient. Extended tests were made with it for the Connec- 
ticut Board of Health in 1892, which show that it may be depended 
upon, if the porcelain cylinder be cleaned and sterilized once a week. 
Freundenreich has obtained similar results, and has also shown that 
the length of time during which the filter is efficient depends upon 
the temperature. 
John W. Hill, M. Am. Soc. C. E. (by letter).—The one grand 
proposition in connection with the quality of water supplies is that a 
polluted water is the immediate or original cause of typhoid fever 
and the typhoid symptoms in typhoid malarial fever, and that a 
water at all times wholly free from the typhoid bacillus can never 
produce typhoid when nsed as a beverage, nor in any other way. 
Such water is very difficult to find in Nature, or, being found, it is 
difficult to preserve it free from contamination. 
Water gathered at great elevations above habitations and the oper- 
ations of husbandry, and impounded in large deep reservoirs, is per- 
haps the nearest approach to sterilized water in Nature which we can 
hope to make. 
Kivers which receive sewage at any point above or at short dis- 
tances below water-works intakes can never be regarded as safe sources 
for drinking water. The same statement applies, but generally with 
less force (excepting Lake Michigan at Chicago), to lakes which are 
the outfalls for town sewage. 
Sand filtration abroad has generally been attended with good 
results, but it cannot be relied upon to remove all disease germs, and 
in this country, from my own experience, the continuous sand filter as 
usually operated is not to be depended upon as a safeguard against 
disease germs in water. From some investigations which I am now 
making of the water of the Passaic River, N. J., I find enormous growths 
of bacteria on gelatine and agar plates, even after the water has been 
passed through one of our celebrated mechanical filters. Plates being 
inoculated simultaneously from unfiltered and filtered water, the rela- 
tive growths of bacteria from the filtered water is very startling. The 
results of the investigations mentioned above when completed will be 
published in due time in one of the engineering journals. 
In replying to the criticisms of Professor Mason, the writer believes 169 
DISCUSSION ON THE QUALI1Y OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
that water is the carrier of the typhoid and other disease germs, and 
he is willing to accept the present evidence as proof of this. There 
is no desire to “ unsettle the public mind and cause lack of faith in the 
teachings of some able masters,” and if there is anything in the paper 
which rejects the conclusions of Eberth, Koch and other investigators 
of the typhoid bacillus, the writer must confess to such a degree of 
obtuseness as not to be able to recognize it. If the writer has not 
made his position clear upon this question in the paragraph at the 
bottom of page 135 et seq., then the fault lies in the choice of language 
and not in intention. 
In stating that the proof is still wanting that the Eberth bacillus 
will cause typhoid, the reference was made to Dr. Sternberg’s excellent 
“ Manual of Bacteriology,” where those who may be interested in this 
phase of the water question can examine the authority at their conve- 
nience and draw their own conclusions. 
It might have been better to quote at length from Dr. Sternberg’s 
work, but it was not considered necessary, and would not have 
changed the substantial fact that “ the proof is still wanting ” that the 
Eberth bacillus will cause typhoid in man, however confident Dr. 
Sternberg, Prof. Mason, and others may be that it will. In this 
opinion the writer shares, but until inoculation experiments have been 
made upon man (and this is obviously impossible in an enlightened and 
humane age), there will remain some foundation for the opinion 
so often expressed of the fallibility of the germ theory of disease. 
While the evidence clearly shows the connection of the typhoid bacil- 
lus of Eberth with the typhoid fever symptoms, and probably shows 
it as the cause of typhoid, the positive evidence can be had only in the 
manner pointed out. 
That the processes for the differentiation of the typhoid bacillus 
from other water bacteria are both “difficult and delicate,” even in 
the hands of a master, Professor Mason is referred to Dr. Vaughan’s 
“Bacteriological Study of Drinking Water,” 1892, and to Dr. Stern- 
berg’s “Manual of Bacteriology,” page 349, last paragraph, as well as 
to his own paper on “ Some Cases of Drinking Water and Disease,’’ 
1891, when, notwithstanding his careful attempts at cultivation of the 
typhoid bacillus from the infected waters of the Mohawk and Hudson 
rivers, he failed entirely to find the germ. There is no doubt of the 
typhoid bacillus being in the water at the time of its examination by 
Professor Mason, but his attempts to show the existence of it were 
entirely negative. He gives a satisfactory reason for this, but his 
reason only proves that an attempt to demonstrate the existence of the 
germ in water is very difficult, and he is undoubtedly aware of the 
fact that the tests for the germ are very delicate and not very 
reliable. 
The paragraph quoted by Mr. Mason on page 165 was, upon the DISCUSSION ON THE QUALITY OF WATER SUPPLIES. 
170 
advice of Dr. Sternberg, withdrawn before the paper was read at the 
Convention, and the following paragraph was substituted: 
“In order to approach the question of water pollution properly, 
it must be borne in mind that while polluted water is held to be the 
cause of certain diseases, exactly how it acts on the human system is 
not well known. Bacteriologists generally Regard the Koch cholera 
bacillus and the Eberth typhoid bacillus as the causes of these 
diseases, but this view is not shared by all physicians as it should be 
if the proof of cause was sufficient; although common prudence should 
decide us in rejecting any water known to contain the cholera or 
typhoid bacilli, whether these germs be regarded as the cause or result 
of disease, since they indicate the presence of the cause even if not 
themselves the cause.” 
In regard to the remarks upon the incompetency of any known 
method of filtration to prevent typhoid fever, the writer can only add 
to what he has already stated in discussing this aspect of the quality 
of water, that while filtration may mitigate, it cannot be depended 
upon to wholly remove the evils of a polluted water. Thus the 
removal by filtration of 99% of the bacteria is accompanied by a re- 
duction of 75% in the typhoid fever death rate, showing that the 
1% of bacteria remaining in the water are as virulent in a pathogenic 
sense as 33% of the bacteria removed. Professor Mason has stated* 
that during the epidemic of typhoid fever in Albany and vicinity 
(1890-91) “boiling of water for drinking purposes was recommended, 
and no typhoid developed among families who followed the recom- 
mendation,” clearly indicating that absolute safety from a water of 
known pollution lay in the direction of sterilization and not in the 
direction of filtration. This, in short, is the writer’s position with 
reference to the problem of eliminating typhoid fever from the list of 
diseases by which we are now confronted. Let all polluted water be 
properly sterilized and there will be no typhoid among the people who 
drink and cook exclusively with such water. 
* “Notes on Some Cases of Drinking Water and Disease.” Professor William P. Mason, 1891.