“The question is, not whether the chemist would find out the organic matter, so much as it is, whether the germs that disseminate the disease still have their property further down the river. This can only be solved by the effects. You might go on using the water for years, and it might not be discovered until some outbreak of disease occurs directly attributable to the water.”
The practical sanitary experiment would then be solved, but at the expense of a number of lives.
Dr. Klob, of Vienna, has discovered, in the evacuations of cholera patients, millions and millions of microscopic fungi similar in form to a mushroom.
There are, above the Cincinnati pumping works, six sewers discharging their filth into the Ohio River, besides the fœcal drainage of no less than five thousand privies, all within a radius of less than three miles. Now, the quality of such water is readily established, for we are putting the sewage into the water knowing there are no means to get rid of it.
OHIO RIVER STATEMENT, SHOWING THE HIGHEST, LOWEST, AND AVERAGE STAGES FOR EACH YEAR AT CINCINNATI WATER-WORKS.
| YEAR. | HIGHEST STAGE. | LOWEST STAGE. | AVERAGE FOR THE YEAR. | |||||
| DATE. | FEET. | IN. | DATE. | FEET. | IN. | FEET. | IN. | |
| 1832 | February 18 | 62 | 11½ | |||||
| 1847 | December 17 | 62 | 3½ | |||||
| 1858 | June 16 | 43 | 10 | October 3d | 2 | 5 | 12 | 10 |
| 1859 | February 22d | 55 | 5 | September 19th | 3 | 3 | 17 | 7 |
| 1860 | April 16th | 49 | 2 | October 3d | 5 | 4 | 16 | — |
| 1861 | April 19th | 49 | 5 | July 13th | 5 | 1 | 19 | 1 |
| 1862 | January 24th | 57 | 4 | October 31st | 2 | 4 | 17 | 5 |
| 1863 | March 12th | 42 | 9 | October 6th | 2 | 6 | 15 | — |
| 1864 | December 23d | 45 | 1 | August 6th | 3 | 1 | 16 | 8 |
| 1865 | March 7th | 56 | 3 | October 19th | 5 | 8 | 21 | 10 |
| 1866 | September 26 | 42 | 6 | August 17th | 4 | 9 | 19 | 2 |
| 1867 | March 14 | 55 | 8 | October 19th | 3 | — | 17 | — |
| 1868 | March 30th | 48 | 3 | July 21st | 5 | 1 | 18 | 8 |
| 1869 | April 2d | 48 | 9 | August 21st | 5 | 4 | 19 | 8 |
| 1870 | January 19th | 55 | 3 | October 4th | 3 | 10 | 17 | 10 |
| 1871 | May 13th | 40 | 6 | October 12th | 2 | 8 | 11 | 10 |
| 1872 | April 13th | 41 | 9 | October 14th | 3 | — | 11 | 8 |
| 1873 | December 18th | 44 | 5 | October 1?th | 3 | 8 | 18 | 5 |
| 1874 | January 11th | 47 | 11 | September 22d | 2 | 4 | 15 | 8 |
| 1875 | August 6th | 55 | 4 | September 19th | 4 | 3 | 18 | 9 |
| 1876 | January 29th | 51 | 9 | September 4th | 6 | 2 | 18 | 2 |
| 1877 | January 20th | 53 | 9 | October 9th | 3 | 3 | 15 | — |
| 1878 | December 15th | 41 | 4 | October 24th | 4 | 4 | 16 | 9 |
| 1879 | December 27th | 42 | 9 | October 23d | 2 | 6 | 14 | 6 |
| 1880 | February 17th | 53 | 2 | October 28th | 3 | 9 | 17 | — |
| 1881 | February 16th | 50 | 7 | September 18th | 1 | 11 | 16 | 11 |
A recent examination of the currents of the river passing the inlets was conclusive that the Eggleston Avenue sewer, 1,000 feet below, could have no effect on our water supply. Be this as it may, its proximity taxes our delicate tastes. The location of the inlet of the Shield aqueduct is not a desirable one, being at the revetment wall, past which all the shore water flows. The small aqueduct certainly can not be improved, its inlet being sixty feet beyond the wall, where the currents produce the best water obtainable.
The value of changing the location of the intakes can be illustrated to a good advantage by the experience of London during the cholera epidemic of 1854. After the epidemic of 1849, the Lambeth Water Company moved their intakes to Teddington, beyond the range of London sewage; while their competitor, the Southwark Company, continued to take its water close to one of the sewers. Their respective water-pipes interlaced each other; and of the 26,000 houses supplied by the Lambeth Company, there were only 294 deaths in 1854, while in 40,000 houses, supplied by the other company, there were 2,284 deaths.