wells or from the city supply. In the majority of cases the several rooms of the mills were supplied with drinking water by means of wooden pails, in which water was brought by hand from some tap of city water, or from some well, either in the mill itself, or in the mill yard, or in the immediate vicinity of the mill. In a few cases only, for example, in the Merrimack" Mills, city water was said to have been introduced into every room. In the "Hamilton" Mills a special tank of large size had been built, into which city water was run. The tank was so large that, in summer, ice, in cakes, was easily introduced at the top. At the bottom of this reservoir was a series of taps, to which messengers were sent, when necessary, from the various rooms. These mills, therefore, were provided with an abundance of city water, properly cooled in summer. The Massachusetts" Mills had a well conveniently placed in their spacious yard. The "Boott" was supplied from wells in the neighborhood. The "Lawrence" had a similar source of supply. The Tremont" and "Suffolk" obtained their drinking water from a tap on the city service. The Lowell Machine Shop had one city tap, but depended chiefly on a well in the mill yard. The mills on the Concord River Canal also used, in some cases, well waters, supplying the several rooms by pails.

66

It appears, therefore, that with a few exceptions the mills were not piped for city water. There is, nevertheless, in most of the mills in Lowell a complete system of water supply, although it is not intended to serve for drinking purposes. This is the canal water, which is drawn, by nearly every mill situated upon a canal, directly from the wheel pit, and pumped to a tank at the top of the mill. From this it flows by gravity to all parts of the mill, supplying, for example, the water for the water-closets, for washing, for atomizing, etc., in short, for all purposes except for drinking. In many, perhaps in most, of the rooms this water was delivered by faucets of the ordinary pattern, projecting, as usual, above large sinks. It was generally the most accessible, and sometimes the only easily accessible, water; and this circumstance, added to the fact that it was often cooler than the pail water, which had perhaps been standing for some time in a heated room, tempted the indifferent or careless to use it for drinking. I have abundant evidence that it was often used for drinking and was sometimes preferred to the pailwater supply. I have myself seen a drinking cup hanging upon a

canal-water faucet, and I discovered one overseer who himself so much preferred the polluted canal water for drinking that he said that he did not want to have any other water in the rooms under his care. In the statistics of the cases of typhoid fever given beyond, it is shown that some freely admitted that they had frequently drunk canal water. It was also alleged, with some show of probability, that the bobbin boys sometimes detailed to keep the pails filled with drinking water, occasionally, in order to avoid a longer journey, went to another room and there filled the drinking-water pail with canal-water. Again, I have myself seen drinking-water pails standing entirely empty, apparently from oversight or neglect, and I have also occasionally seen operatives drawing and drinking canal water. These various circumstances proved indubitably that some canal water was used for drinking; and when I brought out this fact, the defenders of the city water urged that here, then, probably was the source of the epidemic.

"

The exact quality of the canal water varies with the situation of the mill. Some of the mills are upon the upper level," i. e., receive canal water from the Pawtucket, Northern, Western and Merrimack canals. Others are upon the "lower level," i. e., receive canal water which, originally drawn from the Merrimack River, has already passed along the canals just named and through the mills upon the upper level, and is now used over again by mills on a lower level before it finally passes into the river still further down. Some overflow water from the upper canals also feeds the mills on the lower level, without having passed through the mills above; but the mills upon the lower level necessarily use mostly canal water which has already passed through the mills on the upper level.

The sources of pollution of the water of the upper canal have already been described in the previous section. We have only to reflect, first, that all of the mills on the upper level are directly supplied with the polluted water of the upper canal; and, second, that this water, further defiled by all the sewage from many large mills, is afterwards similarly used by the mills on the lower level, in order to realize the dangers to which drinkers of this water, especially in the mills on the lower level, are exposed. This is more emphati cally the case during an epidemic of typhoid fever in the city, when the excreta from many cases, especially mild cases and cases in the early stages of the disease, poured in from the sewers on Walker and

Fig. A. Stony Brook, North Chelmsford, showing in the foreground Tail Race of Woolen Mill, Point of Infection

by Cases No. I and II; in the background, Privy of Foundry, Point of Infection by T. L., (Case No. IV.)

canal-water faucet, and I discovered one overseer who himself so much preferred the polluted canal water for drinking that he said that he did not want to have any other water in the rooms under his care. In the statistics of the cases of typhoid fever given beyond, it is shown that some freely admitted that they had frequently drunk canal water. It was also alleged, with some show of probability, that the bobbin boys sometimes detailed to keep the pails filled with drinking water, occasionally, in order to avoid a longer journey, went to another room and there filled the drinking-water pail with canal-water. Again, I have myself seen drinking-water pails standing entirely empty, apparently from oversight or neglect, and I have also occasionally seen operatives drawing and drinking canal water. These various circumstances proved indubitably that some canal water was used for drinking; and when I brought out this fact, the defenders of the city water urged that here, then, probably was the source of the epidemic.

The exact quality of the canal water varies with the situation of the mill. " Some of the mills are upon the upper level," i. e., receive canal water from the Pawtucket, Northern, Western and Merrimack canals. Others are upon the lower level," i. e., receive canal water which, originally drawn from the Merrimack River, has already passed along the canals just named and through the mills upon the upper level, and is now used over again by mills on a lower level before it finally passes into the river still further down. Some overflow water from the upper canals also feeds the mills on the lower level, without having passed through the mills above; but the mills upon the lower level necessarily use mostly canal water which has already passed through the mills on the upper level.

The sources of pollution of the water of the upper canal have already been described in the previous section. We have only to reflect, first, that all of the mills on the upper level are directly supplied with the polluted water of the upper canal; and, second, that this water, further defiled by all the sewage from many large mills, is afterwards similarly used by the mills on the lower level, in order to realize the dangers to which drinkers of this water, especially in the mills on the lower level, are exposed. This is more emphati cally the case during an epidemic of typhoid fever in the city, when the excreta from many cases, especially mild cases and cases in the early stages of the disease, poured in from the sewers on Walker and