health of body gives purity and health of mind and soul. Conversely, impure food and drink produce impure and diseased physical conditions, and these in turn influence all mental and moral states. If we desire a strong, active, healthy body, free from pain and disease and obedient to our will, and one that shall so remain for one hundred years or more; if we wish an active and vigorous brain that shall give us clean, wholesome, energetic thoughts to the end of life, let us see to it that none but the purest and most suitable solid and liquid food is supplied to our digestive organs, under proper conditions, to make and keep the body and brain clean, strong and enduring. Pure water is the only liquid agent in existence that will do this. scarcely use his efforts better than by endeavoring to enlighten those who are thus injuring themselves." TYPHOID FEVER CAUSED BY IMPURE WATER. It is generally conceded that no one ever has typhoid fever or cholera unless he eats or drinks the germs that produce them. The lesson of the Spanish war should be noted. Surgeon General George M. Sternberg, of the United States Army, states officially: "The total number of deaths reported in our enlarged army, including regulars and volunteers, from May 1st, 1898, to April 30th, 1899, is 6,406. Of these, 5.438 died of disease and 968 were killed in battle, or Prof. Simpson, a noted scientist and phy- died of wounds, injuries or accidents." sician, says: "The complacency with which we swallow the filthy, impure, disease-bearing water which is delivered through poisonous pipes to our homes, affords a spectacle of selfabasement as melancholy as it is disgusting." Prof. Charles F. Chandler, of Columbia College, the noted chemist and analyst, says: "Pure water is hardly second to pure air as a life giving and life protecting agent. It is the most potent servant the sanitary authorities can call to their aid." Nicola Tesla, the celebrated electrician and inventor, in the Century Magazine for June, 1900, says: "For every person who perishes from the effects of a stimulant, at least a thousand die from the consequences of drinking impure water. This precious fluid, which daily infuses new life into us, is likewise the chief vehicle through which disease and death enter our bodies. The germs of destruction it conveys are enemies all the more to be dreaded as they perform their fatal work unperceived. They seal our doom while we live and enjoy. The majority of people are so ignorant or careless in drinking water, and the consequences of this are so disastrous, that a philanthropist can It is well known that impure water was one of the chief causes of the great mortality. If the soldiers had been provided with an abundance of pure water I fully believe nine-tenths of that number would have been saved. It has been stated that on the war vessels where nothing but distilled water was used, not a single death occurred from disease. The marine Battalion, 500 to 600 strong, used distilled water from the ships while on shore duty in Cuba, and had none of the enteric fevers so common in the Fifth Army Corps. Testimony to fill volumes could be adduced in regard to the injurious results of the use of impure water. During the year ending May 31st, 1900, according to the last census, there were 35,379 deaths from typhoid fever in the United States, nearly all of which were caused by disease germs in water. The truth of this cannot be questioned. In the same year there were 46,907 deaths from diarrheal diseases, the great majority of which were due to disease germs and the various organic contaminations contained in water used for drinking and cooking. There are many other diseases produced partially or wholly by impure water, so that I feel that I am fully justified in stating that more than one hundred thousand deaths annually are caused by taking impure water in one form or another, into the system. Let us stop a moment and consider what this means. It means two full regiments, of one thousand men each, marching quietly but painfully down to death each week in the year, and from a cause which is known, and wholly preventable. During the entire Spanish war our loss in battle, and deaths from wounds and accidents, amounted to less than one regiment of men, while, by the use of impure water, we are losing two whole regiments of our citizens each week, and still how few people ever give a thought to its prevention. It is calculated that about ten times as many persons have typhoid fever and 'survive, though they never fully recover from its effects and many of them are seriously injured for life-as there are who die from it. So it is with diarrheal, dysenteric and other water-poison diseases, though the proportion of recoveries to deaths is much greater than in typhoid. From this it will be seen that more than twenty thousand people besides the two thousand who die are made ill each and every week by impure wa ter. Just think of it. Ponder it well. Do not forget it. Look at the 2,000 coffins stretching out in an unbroken line for nearly three miles, and another line of beds of sickness extending almost thirty miles. Beside these coffins, see the crowds of sorrowing ones, mourning the loved and lost, and beside the ling line of the sick and suffering see the anxious friends, the nurses, and the doctors. And all this is repeated every week in the year. All this, and more, is caused by disease germs and organic and mineral impurities in the water we drink and eat. Is it any wonder we require the services of 130,000 physicians in the United States? As an element of destruction, the most deadly war is a complete failure compared with the terrible results of swallowing the silent, invisible foes of human life and health which lurk in innocent looking wa ter. DIARRHEA AND DYSENTERY FROM IMPURE WATER. Prof. Wm. T. Sedgewick, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Biologist of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, in the Journal of N. E. Water Works Association for March, 1896, gives an interesting account of the city water supply of Burlington, Vt., and its effect upon the public health which is very instructive, and from which the following information has been gathered. The natural conditions, location and surroundings of Burlington are exceptionally favorable to health. From 1870 to 1894. à period of twenty-four years, there existed. a "mild epidemic of diarrhea❞ gradually growing worse, year after year, until 1894. The same was true in a lesser degree of dysentery, and, while the deaths from typhoid fever were not considered excessive, they far exceeded what they should have been. This long continued and excessive prevalence of diarrheal and dysenteric diseases was attributed to organic impurities in the water supply which was taken from Lake Champlain, into which the sewerage of the city was discharged. In 1894 the intake pipe of the water supply was extended three miles from the sewer outlet into the lake with the result that, to use Prof. Sedgewick's own words, "the peculiar diarrheal disturbances that had so long prevailed in Burlington have, since the extension of the intake pipe, wholly ceased and the physicians are enthusiastic in their recognition of the salutary change, which they attribute entirely to the improved water supply." This was written in 1896. In answer to my recent letter of inquiry, I have received the following reply from Dr. Watkins, the present Health Officer of Burlington: "Burlington, Vt., Nov. 21st, 1901. "Dr. A. L. WOOD, Brooklyn, N. Y. "Dear Sir: In reply to your letter of inquiry relative to the diarrheal disturbances which at one time prevailed in Burlington, will say that the conditions which followed the change of the intake of water from the lake have continued to the present time. Burlington is very free from such troubles. "Sincerely yours, "H. R. WATKINS, Health Officer." Thus it will be seen that the remarkable, and for a long time unaccounted for, 24 years' reign of diarrheal disorders, from 1870 to 1894, ceased suddenly and absolutely upon the change for the better in the city water supply. Not only this, but for seven years past the same freedom from these intestinal diseases has continued. Does not this conclusively prove that this large class of diseases which causes the death of nearly 50,000 people a year in the United States, in addition to the 35,000 killed by typhoid fever, is caused by the use of impure water? CITY WATER SUPPLIES UNSAFE. The question naturally arises, what water shall we drink? What water shall we use in the preparation of the various articles of food and the different liquids, other than simple water, which we introduce into our stomachs to nourish the body, or for other reasons? I will say here that there are thousands of intelligent people who would not think of drinking our impure city water who allow their cooks to use it in the preparation of all their food, tea, coffee, etc., without once thinking that it is more important to use pure water for cooking than for drinking. But more of this later. Where shall we obtain pure water? Certainly not from city water supplies. They are rendered impure and dangerous to life and health by the drainage from cultivated fields where the rains wash the fertilizers, both animal and commercial, into the streams, and by pollution from shops, factories, and other sources as will be shown further on. That such conditions exist can be seen by any one who will take the time to investigate as I have done. The Ridgewood water of Brooklyn contains an immense number of bacteria and animalculæ. At one time, a few years since, there were as many as six millions of a kind of vegetable starfish named asterionella in one glass of this water. This is all the more interesting from the fact that each one of these bacteria contains a minute globule of oil. There would have been a good opening for the Standard Oil Company! The decomposition of these bodies naturally produced a decidedly unpleasant taste and smell. There are more or less of these bodies present at all times. What a vegetable garden the Ridgewood Reservoir must have been when a single glass of its water contained six million of vegetable organisms. This asterionella, be it remembered, is but one of over 200 different forms of animal and vegetable life contained in our city waters. They are all fully illustrated by George Chandler Whipple, the present Biologist of Brooklyn's Water Supply, in his recent book, "The Microscopy of Drinking Water." Five minutes spent in examination of these illustrations ought to be sufficient to cure any one of the desire to either eat or drink Ridgewood water whether its inhabitants are living or dead. I would refer any one desiring to investigate the condition of the city water, to an article in the May, 1901, number of the Brooklyn Medical Journal, by Dr. Hibbert Hills, now Director of Bacteriological Laboratory of the Boston Board of Health, but who a few years since was Chief Biologist of the Brooklyn Health Department, with sanitary supervision of the watershed. Also to the annual report of the New York State Board of Health for 1898, which contains definite statements of the condition of hundreds of farms, residences, shops and other places bordering the streams and ponds of the Brooklyn watershed, where the drainage from horse and cow stables, barnyards, pigpens, henhouses and yards, rabbit pens, duckyards and ponds, stagnant and filthy water pools, piles of manure, ashes, garbage and all kinds of animal and vegetable refuse, together with actual sewerage from houses, slop sinks, cesspools, urinals, privies and water closets, empty into, and form a part of the delicious Ridgewood water which the people of Brooklyn have been accustomed to brag about and drink in its natural state or in the form of mineral waters, ginger ale, soda water, tea, coffee, &c., and to eat in all kinds of food prepared from it, in their bread, cake, pies, puddings, cooked fruits and vegetables, soups, fruit ices, &c., &c. Any one who can drink the city water or any beverage made from it, or eat anything cooked in it or prepared with it after reading these articles, must have an exceedingly strong stomach. These articles, be it remembered, refer to the Brooklyn water, which, in the past, has enjoyed the reputation of being one of the purest of city waters. For the delectation of the inhabitants of Manhattan Island I will say that their Croton water is much more impure and unwholesome than Brooklyn's Ridgewood. I think it is superfluous to say anything more about Croton water. The only way to avoid this pollution is to keep the watersheds which gather the water used entirely in a state of Nature, that is, free from cultivation and population. This may possibly come in the next generation, but probably not in this. Many people who realize the danger of using the impure city water, boil it and feel happy; others filter it and rest secure. Let us see if they have remedied the trouble. BOILED WATER. Boiling impure water, aside from the destruction of the life of some of the disease germs, the elimination of some of the gases and the deposit of a portion of the carbonate of lime, always makes it more impure. Boil a gallon of water until there is but a quart left and the quart will contain all the impurities of the gallon, except as above stated, and be nearly four times as impure as before. Continue the boiling and all the impurities, animal, vegetable and mineral, except the gases thrown off, will be reduced to one solid mass. The water which is evaporated and passes off as steam, is very nearly pure. But, you will say, it kills the dangerous germs. We will suppose it does, but their remains furnish material for bacterial life to feed upon. Do you relish the idea of eating in food, or drinking their dead and decomposing bodies which poison the water by their decomposition? The fact is, scientific investigation has proved that boiling only kills the feeblest, the least injurious germs. Prof. Percy Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., the noted English scientist, and a recognized authority on water, says: "The germs which propagate epidemic or zymotic diseases may be boiled three hours and yet not be destroyed." Try a simple experiment. Put unboiled city water in one bottle and the same that has been boiled for half an hour, or more, in another, cork tight and keep in the sun or in a warm place for a week or longer and note the difference. The unboiled water will show a marked depreciation in looks, taste and smell, but that which has been boiled will be so much worse in these respects that no one would think of using it. In comparison with these, you can submit a properly sealed bottle of pure distilled water to the same conditions and at the end of a year it will be found to be as pure, sweet and perfect as when first bottled. FILTERED WATER. The domestic filter is a dangerous article of the worst description. People rely upon it in fancied security while in 99 cases out of every 100 the water is more dangerous to health and life after passing through it than before. All soluble mineral salts and all impurities of every description, including the deadly poisons from disease germs, which are held in solution, pass through the very best filter at all times, as freely as the water itself, and, unless the filter is cleaned and sterilized several times a day, which is rarely, if ever done, the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases multiply with great rapidity within the filter itself and pass through with the water. Many eminent chemists and scientists have testified to the truth of these statements. (To be concluded.) MENTAL EMANCIPATION. BY J. WARREN ACHORN, M.D., WE have all had two grandfathers but mighty few of us had two good ones. It is the bad grandfather in evidence, when an ill-balanced nervous system or a weak physical make-up betrays its owner every time a little stress or some vicissitude is put upon the machine. Let us assume for the sake of simplicity that worry, hurry, unhappiness without apparent cause, indifference, "the blues," anger and the like, are so many bad habits, just as much so as smoking, chewing tobacco, drinking, swearing, using bad grammar or the hundred and one other accomplishments that become a part of us as we grow up, and that fit us for our socalled civilized life. In childhood we learn to say and do things, unconsciously, without care or reason, or by imitating our parents, our teachers or our companions. Later on other factors mix with the development and play a part in the evolution. Finally we are made up of a batch of consciously or unconsciously acquired habits mental and physical, good and bad, that we control in part and in part surrender to, according to the amount of mental discipline we have had and the amount of character we possess. Wherever there is a hill there is apt to be a "holler" beyond, and topographically speaking the blues are that hollow, or more exactly the depression that follows overexertion, over-excitement, intoxication or morbid mental impulses from whatever cause that run riot whenever they get a chance. Some people are so steeped in this frame of mind-mood, that they prefer a dose of it to good company. The periodical drunk is as often the result of some unfortunate mental bias as it is the outcome of stress or degeneracy. Like the blues it is the climax of some mental or physical perversity that repeats itself in a vicions circle, the direct result of cultivation perhaps. It is as apt to follow an attempt to split wood with a dull axe as anything else. Often the bad grandfather has to be reckoned with twice in the count that sums up these weaknesses, congenital and otherwise. Worry is a chronic mental attitude with innumerable people. It is part of a New England woman's education. The repeating cause of this wretched habit will frequently be found to rest on something not bigger than a lost button or a piece of burnt bread and yet it serves to keep the possessor in such a state as to render life miserable. The fundamental cause of this weakness is probably our American way of doing things, for there is neither peace of body nor mind for the uninitiated in this country, where everything is done in a rush. Our grandmothers or mothers, if they were not altogether lovely, might be held responsible for the almost universal development of this habit among their sex. Some of those afflicted consult their physician; they know they are miserable and they may know why, but they seldom make an unaided attempt at a cure, and they are unwilling voluntarily to confess the fault. And the physician, unless he finds some recognized disease or tangible physical disorder, is more than apt to send them away without help or with a placebo, which only makes matters worse; it does no good and causes his patient to lose faith in him. Had he probed a little deeper he might have discovered that some one of the habits referred to was at the bottom of the trouble, and then if he were himself, he would not pass it over in silence as outside his province. Is it not as much the duty of the skilled physician to rid his patients of habits that make them mentally and physically miserable as it is for him to name measures and remedies for classified diseases? There are as many people needing treatment for discordant mental faults that debilitate as there are nightmares from dyspepsia. This whole question is one of character building and in this physicians, with their intimate knowledge of the brain and body and of the laws of right life and living for a foundation, should be past masters. 2 |