Part 3

1878, a son, age 37 years; cause, consumption.

1879, a daughter, age 34 years; cause, consumption.

1879, father, age 76 years; cause, old age, feeble a long time.

1883, a son-in-law, age 47 years; cause, bronchial consumption.

This last was the only one of whom I had charge, and it was during one of my professional visits that I discovered the situation of the well. One of the first things of which he complained was sore throat and hoarseness, laryngo-pharyngitis. At the same time he was troubled with an eruption. I never saw it, but as he described it I should say that it was erythematous in its nature. If he exercised so as to perspire, or took hot drinks, it would make its appearance, causing the surface to itch and feel very uncomfortable.

During the spring and summer of 1882 he was under the care of various physicians, both regular and irregular, until the first of October of that year, when he came under my care, at which time he was troubled with cough and hoarseness, it being with difficulty that he spoke aloud. The stomach was very irritable, frequently rejecting food, and more often his medicine. Once when he was in my office for the purpose of consultation, I inquired in regard to his drinking-water. He told me that it was “splendid water,” and all right; that he drank a great deal of it. At various times during the fall and early winter he would seem to improve, when some imprudence on his part would put him back. Finally he grew worse, as manifested by failing strength, loss of appetite, and by coughing and raising more, until his death.

The sputa was very tenacious, and at last was quite thick, and composed almost entirely of pus. A few weeks before he died I examined his chest thoroughly. There was no dulness over either lung, and he could fill both of them equally well. Auscultation revealed very heavy, moist rales.

About five weeks before the death of the father,—that was some time in January,—I was called to the house to attend his son, a lad six years of age, with dysentery accompanied with petechial eruption over the limbs and body. He recovered slowly. In about two weeks two other sons, aged respectively eight and ten years, came down in the same way with dysentery and the eruption, causing them to scratch vigorously. The mother was troubled with the eruption, but no dysentery.

D. M. CURRIER.

THE RYE BEACH WELL,

which has attracted considerable attention the present season, and been the source of many false newspaper reports, is most remarkable in the history of water pollution. Briefly, the history connected therewith is as follows:

A wealthy Philadelphian by the name of Lewis, who has spent his summers at this noted beach for the last twelve years, bought last spring a lot of land, and built a very expensive and elegant summer residence. The location was upon an elevation some forty or fifty feet higher than the sea, and but a short distance from the water. This elevation is made up mostly of seamy ledges, with but a few feet of soil covering the same. From a sanitary point of view, no better site could possibly be selected.

Instead of building a sewer to the ocean for drainage purposes, he constructed a cess-pool forty feet distant from the house, into which all the sewage from the house ran. In building this cess-pool it was necessary to excavate three feet of the ledge to get a good and sufficient depth. Sixty feet from this cess-pool, and apparently upon the same level, was dug the well which was to supply this residence with water. After reaching the ledge, it was necessary to go ten feet into the rock to get sufficient water, which was obtained in abundance, and was excellent in quality. The well and cess-pool were both constructed at the same time, and in two weeks after, the well was polluted by this cess-pool. The family, not realizing the source of pollution or its danger, continued to use the water for a short time afterwards, or until it became so tainted that it was repulsive to the senses of taste and smell. The result was the death of Mr. Lewis, and a lady visitor who lived in the vicinity and frequently drank of this water, and a severe illness of a daughter of Mr. Lewis, his servant, and a guest of the family. These seemed to be cases of blood poisoning, the severer ones resembling in their last stage typhoid fever.

This instance of well pollution illustrates the fact that a rock formation, though generally believed to be the best safeguard against the contamination of a well, may be the most dangerous. The seams which existed in this ledge no doubt served as direct channels to convey the filth to this well.

The following instance of well pollution seems to illustrate in what unsuspected ways water may become contaminated:

A short time since, Dr. C. A. Wood, of Greenville, sent me several specimens of water for examination. The contamination of some of them was of such a character that I asked him for a history of the samples. I will here state that the specimens marked “No. 2” and “No. 3” were both badly polluted, and with different substances, so that, in testing, the chemical reactions were quite different. In his reply to my letter of inquiry he says,—

“The water I sent you last week marked No. 2 was dipped directly from the well, as shown in diagram, while the water marked No. 3 was pumped from the pump. The family have been sick more or less ever since they occupied the house. None of them have been well, but it is exceedingly difficult to give a name to their complaints, except a general out of fix, with a dull, tired feeling, headaches, sore throats, furred tongues, &c., but no downright sickness so as to prostrate them.”

It will be readily seen by the crude diagram that the cess-pool filth which had accumulated around the lead pipe leading to the well, by reason of a breakage in the sink-drain, had corroded the water-pipe till it was full of small holes, which allowed this filth to be drawn in and mixed with the water every time any was drawn from the well. Such a condition is not likely to be of very frequent occurrence, but it demonstrates the fact that the source of water pollution may be sometimes subtle and unexpected.

In the foregoing paper it has been my aim only to present some points that will lead to a more careful consideration of this all-important subject, rather than to discuss the topic from a purely scientific standpoint. To awaken a deeper interest in the prevention of disease is necessary both in the profession and among the people, and I sincerely hope the medical men of our state will become the instructors and the guardians of the public to the extent that unnecessary sickness may be largely averted, and nature’s gifts received in nature’s purity.