History of Sanitation

Synopsis OF Chapter. Introduction of Water Filters—Striking Example of their Efficiency and Value—Cholera at Altona and Hamburg—Purification of Sew- age—The Automatic Scavenger of Mouras—Investigations of the Massachusetts State Board of Health—Garbage Destruction. AS the suburban population around London, England, grew and occupied the drainage area from which the London water supply was obtained, just in such pro- portion was the water supply polluted, and London was early- forced to devise measures for purifying an already polluted water; so it is that as early as 1839 London was filtering part of the water derived from surface sources, and so successful were the early attempts that at the present time although London is supplied with water by eight separate water com- panies, all of the water used within its confines which is de- rived from rivers, lakes or streams, is filtered before delivery into the distributing mains. Europe was not slow to grasp the value of filtration, and at the present time most cities of importance in Continental Europe have slow sand filters, while America, or at least the United States, which is re- puted to adopt almost immediately anything which possesses merit, had constructed no filters as late as 1880, and to-day can number but few. A striking illustration of the value of filtration for sterilizing an infected water supply can be instanced in the cholera epidemic of Hamburg, Germany. On the river Elbe, some miles from the sea, there are three cities adjoining and forming in appearance one large city of 800,000 inhabitants, the combined sewage of which is discharged into the river Elbe. The water supply to the 109