feet in diameter and only 22 inches deep. All the dirt thrown out of the hole can be hauled at ten wheel barrow loads. It is mere pretense to evade your positive order. This small hole is more of a hindrance than a benefit to the drainage as it is overflowing. They tan about 66 hides daily and discharge 600 cubic feet of refuse in the stream every day.

Mr. E. G. S -, the clerk, is in charge of the tannery, their former superintendent, Mr. B, has been sent to a new tannery down south, and Mr. S says that this tannery being in the trust their instructions were to keep expenses as low as possible and he did not intend to go to any expense to prevent this pollution. Mr. G. W. C, Ridgway, Elk county, Pa., is the president of the Elk Tanning Company, and I would suggest that you write him at once of their continued pollution of this stream after they have been repeatedly notified. I talked to a number of the farmers along the stream between this place and Mann's Choice, and they all told me that the water killed the fish and their stock would not drink the water.

The extreme dry weather we are having here and the low condition of the water in this stream renders this pollution still more dangerous to domestic use. I send you a sample of water taken from the stream at the point where their refuse enters the river. The color and odor of this should be sufficient to satisfy any ordinary person that this water is unfit for domestic use.

52-INSPECTION AT ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY.

By C. B. DUDLEY, Medical Inspector, on account of soap boiling nuisance.

Doctor Benjamin Lee, Secretary:

Altoona, Pa., Sept. 15, 1895.

Dear Sir: The case referred to in your official notice of September 5th, is one that is very familiar to the local board of health here and to myself. The state of the case is as follows:

Mr. Bowns a property of about 15 acres, a little less than half a mile from the city limits. On the extreme end of this property, farthest from the city, in a sort of ravine, he has located a soap factory and bone boiling establishment, to which, under proper regulations by the local board here, he every days carries material gathered from the butcher shops in town. In a sense he is doing a very valuable service to the city in disposing of material for making soap, fertilizer. etc, which would otherwise have to be carried off and buried.

There are two possible causes of complaint in regard to this establishment. The establishment is situated in a sort of ravine, and at certain seasons of the year following every rain, material is washed down through this ravine into the city limits, and passes certain houses.

The second cause of complaint is that under certain conditions of the wind, bad odors are blown into the city.

I visited the establishment yesterday, and just at present there is no nuisance from either cause. The local board here have had cognizance of this matter for several years, and have several times visited and inspected the work. The rendering is done in closed vessels, the gases being taken up the chimney. The principle difficulty seems to be with the fertilizer which is spread on the soil.

A recent complaint from parties living in the region caused a visit of the local board of health to this place, some month or six weeks ago, and as the result of this it was proposed that a sewer be put in the ravine from the city line, to connect with one of the main sewers in the city. Mr. B- offered if this was done, to sewer the ravine from the city line to his establishment, so that there would be no cause for complaint due to material washed down. Unfortunately, the parties most interested, and many of them those complaining the worst, have apparently gotten aroused a little over the matter, and have opposed the sewer very seriously. I had a talk with some of them yesterday, and tried to persuade them that a sewer was the only solution of that part of the nuisance due to drainage, and that it was essential that they should co-operate in the matter of the construction of this sewer. I also found house drainage in the gutters in front of the houses of some of the parties complaining most bitterly, which to my mind is fully as prejudicial to the public health as the bone boiling establishment, and so stated to the parties. I am strongly of the opinion that a sewer, as proposed by the local board of health, and as we hoped once that we were going to get and would get, but for the opposition of the few parties above referred to, would entirely remove the difficulty due to drainage. The difficulty due to the odors can be managed by constant supervision of the establishment to keep it sweet and clean.

At the present time, I do not think there is any cause for action further than what the local board of health is taking. We will keep at the matter, and see if we can persuade these people to put in a sewer, and if they are still obstinate, we will try to get councils to put in a sewer as a sanitary measure.

53-INSPECTION AT GROVE CITY, MERCER COUNTY.

By T. M. COOLEY, Medical Inspector, on account of proposed pollution of a stream.

September 20, 1895.

Grove City is a village in the eastern part of Mercer county, containing a population of two thousand persons. There is a college in the village that has an attendance of about three hundred students. The college corporation owns twenty acres of land on which they have erected very fine buildings. A small stream, called Wolf creek, flows along one side of the town and skirts the banks of the college lands. At the lower or down stream side of the college lands is a dam across this creek, making a large mill pond. In this dam is a fore-bay through which the water is fed to the mill. The water usually stands about three feet deep in this fore-bay. But when the gates are lifted it goes out with a great rush. Below this dam and fore-bay the water is usually very low and sluggish, only when these gates are lifted.

Now, the question upon which they wish your advice is whether to empty this sewer into this fore-bay, where it would be emptied each time the gates were lifted, or whether they must go below the dam. To do the latter would cost them at least a thousand dollars more than the former, as they would have to go a good piece down the stream before they could avoid the low water and sluggish stream. After going down stream about a mile, there is greater fall and deeper water.

On the other hand, if emptied into the fore-bay above the dam, might it not back up into the mill pond and pollute the waters there? The water in this pond is about five feet deep, and of course is still, there being no current, only when the gates are lifted.

The sewer is intended principally for the bath rooms of the college, but the president informs me that there will be two closets and a number of urinals attached to it. But they are expected to be used but very little. The citizens of the village have been in the habit of using ice from this pond and some of them are fearful that emptying the sewer into the fore-bay its flow would back up into the pond so much that the ice would be unfit to use. For my own part, I believe that each time these gates are raised, all sewerage will be carried off with the rush of water. The people

are very much divided in their opinion and await your reply and advice with interest.

I have explained the matter to the best of my ability and hope you will be able to understand it from this meagre report.

54—INSPECTION AT FOLCROFT, DELAWARE COUNTY.

By ROBERT S. MAISON, Medical Inspector, on account of nuisance caused by pig pens.

To the Secretary of the State Board of Health:

September 27, 1895.

Sir: I have the honor to report that in compliance with instructions received from you September 27, 1895, I visited Folcroft, on September 27, 1895, and found the following conditions to exist:

The piggery consists, at present, of six pens and twenty-four (24) pigs. The pens have board floors, from eight inches to fourteen inches above the ground, and floors rest on logs in such a way that filthy matter accumulating beneath them cannot be removed. The swill is fed to pigs directly on floors, there being no troughs. The floors were covered with swill, and there was considerable swill and manure around the pens. The neighbors tell me that since it became known that the State Board of Health had been appealed to, three large wagon loads of manure had been removed from pens. I recommend that J K-, Folcroft (Sharon Hill P. O.), Delaware county, be ordered to raise pens three feet above ground, that pens be cleaned every day until November 1, that swill be carted in wagons having close lids, and that ground around pens be kept clean.

55-INSPECTION AT MT. JOY TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER

COUNTY.

By WM. BLACKWOOD, Medical Inspector, on account of bone boiling establishment.

Lancaster, September 17, 1895.

To the Secretary of the State Board of Health:

Sir: I have the honor to report that in compliance with instructions received from you September 6, 1895, I visited Mt. Joy township on September 15, 1895, and found the following conditions to exist: