| Introduction | Historical Background | Chronology | Geography | Biography | Technology | Ownership and Financing | General Bibliography |
| Technology | Disinfection |
Filtration was used throughout the 19th Century in American water works, initially with small water filters used by individual consumers that were eventually replaced by filtration systems that could handle all of the water delivered by a water utility. Unfortunately, filtration proved unable to prevent diseases such as typhoid and cholera, and although some systems were able to remove infection sources from their watershed (i.e. humans), a better solution was needed.
In the late 1800s, physicians, chemists and public health professionals recognized that chemicals could be used to disinfect water supplies. Substances containing chlorine showed the most promise and were tested in numerous applications. The big break for chlorine came in Jersey City, New Jersey, where the city has contracted with a company for a supply of water that required "that the water delivered should be pure and wholesome and free from pollution deleterious for drinking and domestic purposes." The city brought suit against the company for failing to deliver water that met this requirement, and the subsequent trail upheld the city on this point, and the company was to ordered to construct sewers to remove contaminants from the Rockaway River watershed or create "other plans or devices" to produce water of the required purity. The company chose to construct a chlorination plant, which was accepted in a subsequent trial as “capable of rendering the water delivered to Jersey City, pure and wholesome, for the purposes for which it is intended, and is effective in removing from the water those dangerous germs which were deemed by the decree to possibly exist therein at certain times."
After this result, chlorine was widely adopted as a disinfection technology.
Also see the references
for Filtration Technology.
References
1722 The
angel of Bethesda, visiting the invalids of a miserable world,
by Cotton Mather
1827 An
Essay on the Use of Chlorurets of oxide of Sodium and of Lime, as
powerful disinfecting agents; and of the Chloruret of Oxide of Sodium,
more especially as a Remedy of considerable efficiency in the
Treatment of Hospital Gangrene; Phagedenic, Syphilitic, and
ill-conditioned ulcers; Mortification; and various other Diseases,
by Thomas Alcock | also here
| Thomas
Alcock |
Pages 29-30: On the Purification of Putrid Water
Another highly important use of the chloruret of lime has been pointed out
by M. Labarraque in the purification of putrid water. For this purpose
from one to two ounces will be required for about sixty gallons of the
infected water. Mr. L. adds, "what I now advance has been verified at the
commencement of the year 1824, by M. Kerauden, inspector general
of the service of health of the marine, who at that time was charged by
His Excellency the minister of the marine and of the colonies to make a
report on my propositions, having for their object, the rendering healthy
the vessels of the king, &c.; propositions which were adopted, and
which I shall make known elsewhere. Dr. Marc, titulary member of
the Royal Academy of Medicine, (who in 1823 was delegated by the Council
of Health to assist in my experiments on animal substances, privies,
&c, and was one of the first who had a glimpse of all-the applications
of the chlorurets) was kind enough to be present at this disinfection of
the water.
"The chloruret of lime is previously dissolved in water, and added
gradually, stirring the vessel of putrid water till the disinfection be
complete. If the chloruret predominate, it is sufficient to expose the
chlorureted water for some moments to the air, and to filtrate it or leave
it to settle, in order that it may become drinkable.
"We may readily conceive of what utility this process may be, whether at
sea, or in marshy countries where the water is insalubrious, or even where
persons are obliged to drink the water of cisterns, which is often
altered."
1827 "An Essay on the Use of Chlorurets of oxide of Sodium and of Lime; and of the Chloruret of Oxide of Sodium, more especially as a Remedy of considerable efficiency in the Treatment of Hospital Gangrene; Phagedenic, Syphilitic, and ill-conditioned ulcers; Mortification; and various other Diseases," by Thomas Alcock, The Lancet 11:643-647 (February 17, 1827)
1829 A Treatise on the nature, cause and treatment of contagious typhus, by Johann Valentin von Hildenbrand, translated by S.D. Gross
1832 Facts regarding the disinfecting powers of chlorine : with an explanation of the mode in which it operates, and with directions how it should be applied for disinfecting purposes, by Chester Averill.
1842 The History, Diagnosis and Treatment of Typhoid and of Typhus Fever, by Elisha Bartlett
1847 The History Diagnosis and Treatment of the Fevers of the United States, by Elisha Bartlett
1849 On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, by John Snow, M.D.
1850 "Report of a general plan for the promotion of public and personal health," by Lemuel Shattuck, Presented April 25, 1850, commonly referred to as the Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts |1948 reprint |
1850 On the Identity or Non-Identity of the Specific Cause of Typhoid, Typhus and Relapsing Fever, by William Jenner
1852 Clinical reports on continued fever, based on analyses of one hundred and sixty-four cases, by Austin Flint
1854 "Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiatico" (Microscopic observations and pathological deductions on Asiatic cholera), by Fillipo Pacini, Gazzetta Medica Italiana: Toscana, 2nd series, 4(50):397-401 (December 17, 1854); 4(51):405-412 (December 19, 1854)
1854 Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiatico, by by Fillipo Pacini
1855 On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, Second Edition, Much enlarged, by John Snow, M.D.
1855 Clinical reports on continued fever, with supplemental reports, by Austin Flint
1855 Treatise on the Cause of Cholera: An Interesting Discovery, J. Franklin Reigert
1855 Discovery of the Cause, Nature, Cure and Prevention of Epidemic Cholera, by M.L. Knapp
1859 Proceedings and Debates of the Third National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention, April, 1859
1859 On Malaria and Miasmata and their Influence in the Production of Typhus and Typhoid Fevers, Cholera, and the Exanthemata: Founded on the Fothergill Prize Essay for 1859, by Thomas Herbert Barker
1860 Proceedings and Debates of the Fourth National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention, June, 1860.
1861 Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers, by Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis | also here | and here |
1865 Sulla Causa Specifica del Colera Asiatico, by Filippo Pacini
1866 "Authorities on Cholera," British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review 38:128-161 (July, 1866)
1866 "A Treatise on the specific Cause of Cholera, its Pathology and Cure," British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review 38:167-168 (July, 1866)
1873 Typhoid Fever: Its Nature, Mode of Spreading, and Prevention, by William Budd
1875 The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States 43d Congress, 2d Session, H. Ex. Doc. 95
1876 "Preventing the spread of contagious disease," Franklin D. Clum, M.D. thesis, Yale University
1876 "Medical
and Sanitary Progress," by Austin Flint, Harper's Magazine
53(313):70-84 (1876)
It is, indeed, claimed by some that the causation of certain diseases by
specific organisms of microscopical minuteness has been demonstrated' by
the majority of medical thinkers, however, the demonstrative evidence is
not considered as complete.
1876 "An essay on the inoculability and infectiousness of tuberculosis," by Edwin B. Bertolet," M.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania
1876 "The present condition of the evidence concerning 'disease germs'" by Thomas E. Satterthwaite, M.D., Transactions of the International medical congress of Philadelphia, 1876, 1101-1028.
1876 A History of Asiatic Cholera, by Nottidge Charles Macnamara
1876 The Germ Theory: Applied to the Explanation of the Phenomena of Disease : the Specific Fevers, by Thomas J. MacLagan, M.D.
1877 “The Nascent State as Affecting Chemical Action,” by Edward Davies, The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions. 8:485-486 (December 22, 1877)
1880 Water Analysis for Sanitary Purposes: With Hints for the Interpretation of Results, by Edward Frankland
1880 Grundlagen zur Beurtheilung des Trinkwassers, zugleich mit Berücksichtigung der Brauchbarkeit fuer gewerbliche Zwecke und der Reinigung con Abfallwasser, nebst Anleitung zur Pruefung des Wassers. Von Dr. Eduard Reichardt
1881 "Translation of an address on the Germ Theory," by Professor Pasteur, The Lancet 118(3024):271-272 (August 13, 1881)
1881 "Ueber Desinfection," von Regierungsrath Dr. Robert Koch, Mittheilungen aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte 1:234-282 (1881)
1881 "Beiträge
zur Lehre von der Antisepsis," von Fr. Boillat, Journal für
Praktische Chemie 25:300-309 (December 30, 1881)
Die unmittelbare Veranlassung zu den in Folgendem zu beschreibenden
Versuchen war eine kürzlich erschienene Abhandlung von Regierungsrath Dr.
B,. Koch über Desinfection. Gegenüber den in der letzten Zeit so zahlreich
auftauchenden, hoch angepriesenen, dann allerdings meistens sehr rasch vom
Schauplatz wieder verschwindenden antiseptischen Mitteln vertritt Koch die
entgegengesetzte Ansicht, dass nämlich von allen den bis jetzt als
fäulnisswidrig bekannten Materien blos Chlor, Brom, Jod, Sublimat und
allenfalls noch übermangansaures Kali und Osmiumsäure den Namen eines
Desinfectionsmittels verdienen.
1882 "The Germ Theory," by Professor Louis Pasteur, Popular Science Monthly 20:801-806 (April 20, 1882)
1882 "Die Aetiologie der Tuberkulose," von Dr. Robert Koch, Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift 19(15):221-230 (April 10, 1882)
1882 "Determination of Organic Matter in Potable Water," by Prof. J.W. Mallet, American Chemical Journal 4(4):241-263 (October, 1882)
1882 "Disinfectants,"
American Chemical Journal 4(4):324-325 (October 1882)
In an article on disinfection, Dr. R. Koch remarks that the only
substances worthy of the name of disinfectants are chlorine, bromine,
iodine, mercuric chloride, and perhaps potassium permanganate and osmic
acid.
1882 The Bacteria: An Account of Their Nature and Effects, Together with a Systematic Description of the Species, by Thomas Jonathan Burrill
1882 Eleventh Annual
Report of The Local Government Board 1881-1882. Supplement
Containing the Report of the Medical Officer for 1881
Pages
xviii- Auxiliary Scientific Investigations
It is worth while to regard these chemical experiences in their
application to an actual case, for the sake of a better understanding of
such figures. In an outbreak of enteric fever at Caterham two years ago,
nearly 200 earlier attacks were traced, upon evidence that did not admit
of question, to the use throughout a particular fortnight, of water that
had been pumped from a well in which a man having enteric fever had been
at work. Some excremental matters from him had by accident got into the
well. Now I learn through the Chairman of Directors of the Caterham
Waterworks Company that 1,861,000 gallons of water were pumped from the
well during the fortnight. If the water had for the whole fortnight
contained one grain of excremental matter per gallon, this would have
meant that 19 lbs. of excrement had been added to each day's supply of
water. It is of course out of the question that the man evacuated any such
quantity; neither is there any reason to suppose that every gallon
received the same amount of contaminating matter; but the story may serve
to show that in speaking of one grain in the gallon, we speak of a very
large amount of polluting matter present in the water. It may be thought
of as an amount not likely to have been exceeded in the particular samples
of Caterham water that did actually produce disease in the individuals who
drank it.
Pages
127-165: APPENDIX B. No. 1. On the Results of
Examination of certain Samples of Water purposely Polluted with Excrements
from Enteric Fever Patients, and with other Matters, by Dr. Robert Cory.
1883 "Cholera
and our Water Supply," by Percy F. Frankland, M.D., Nineteenth
Century 14(68):346-355 (August, 1983)
In the case of two zymotic diseases, and these the most fatal and
destructive of the entire class, namely, Asiatic cholera and typhoid
fever, it is proved beyond all doubt that water contaminated with drainage
which has been infected by patients suffering from these diseases, is
capable of inducing the same diseases in persons drinking of this infected
water.
1883 "Cholera and Water Supply," Engineering News 10:434-435 (September 15, 1883)
1883 Bacteria and the Germ Theory of Disease, by Henry Gradle
1883 Water Supply Considered Mainly from a Chemical and Sanitary Standpoint, by Prof. William Ripley Nichols of MIT
1884 "Sechester Bericht der deutschen Wissenschaftlichen Commission zur Enforschung der Cholera," Dr. Koch, Kalkitta, des 2. February 1884, Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 10(12):191-192 (March 20, 1884)
1884 "Cholera
disinfection," The Medical News 45:127 (August 2, 1884)
If we can only preserve the drinking water from contamination, it is
impossible for cholera to become epidemic.
1884 "A
British Cholera Mission," The British Medical Journal
2(1232):292 (August 9, 1884)
Two distinguished British pathologists are now on their way to India to
investigate the nature of cholera as seen in that country. On August 6th,
Dr. Klein, Lecturer on Histology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and Dr.
Heneage Gibbes, who holds a similar appointment at the Westminster
Hospital, left England in the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Ancona.
These well-known histologists and pathologists are associated in a
commission from the British Government, and also work for a similar
commission in India, but quite untrammelled, in the investigation of
cholera, its pathology, propagation, and habitat. Drs. Klein and Gibbes
are bound for Bombay, whence they will start for a scientific tour all
over our Indian empire. Every possible facility will be afforded to
them by the Indian authorities in this, the most important commission that
has ever been sent to India; and it is fortunate that two such able men
have been chosen for the purpose, the reputation of Dr. Klein having long
been recognised, whilst Dr. Gibbes is not only a high authority on
bacteria and the proper manner of detecting them and preparing them for
microscopical demonstration, but, we are informed, has already travelled
in the East. They take with them, as skilled assistant, Mr. Alfred
Lingard, who has for some weeks been engaged in the preparation of a large
number of cultivating tubes, and they are provided with a complete set of
apparatus, so as to be able to carry out their researches as completely
and perfectly as though they were conducted in an European laboratory.
1884 "Die Conferenz sur Eröterung der Cholerafrage," Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 10(32):499-507 (August 7, 1884); 10(32A):519-332 (August 11, 1884)
1884 Report
on the Prevention of Epidemic Cholera in America, adopted by
the American Public Health Association and the Conference of State Boards
of Health
The cause of cholera is contained in the discharges from persons affected
by the disease, or in things infected by such discharges.
1884 Cholera disinfection : what to use and how to do it. Collection of articles
1884 "Die Aetiologie der Tuberkulose," von Dr. Robert Koch, Mitteilungen aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte 2:1-88 (1884)
1884 "Zur Aetiologie des Abdominaltyphus" (On the etiology of abdominal typhus), by Georg Gaffky, Mittheilungen aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte 2:372-420. (1884)
1885 The
sanitary needs of Toledo, in view of the probable approach of cholera:
read before the Social Science Club, Feb. 28th, 1885, by
William W. Jones, M.D.
My observation and experience with cholera in this country has convinced
me that it is not contagious, as that term is used in connection with
small-pox, measles, pumps, and, perhaps, whopping couch in children, but
that its spread is greatly due to that undefined and undetermined
influence of mind upon mind, which is more felt than seen, and which
disturbes that individual by its depressant action upon his mental and
nerve force.
1885 "Cholera," by Dr. Max Von Pettenkoffer, Popular Science Monthly 26:503-516 (February, 1885) | 26:621-632 (March 1885)
1885 "The Epidemic of Typhoid Fever at Plymouth, Pennsylvania," The Medical News 46(20):541-543 (May 16, 1885)
1885 "The cholera and the comma bacillus," The British Medical Journal 1(1273):1076-1077 (May 23, 1885)
1885 "The Etiology of the Plymouth Epidemic," by William Stone Torrey, M.D., Medical Record 27(23):626-627 (June 6, 1885)
1885 "The Plymouth Epidemic," by Hermann M. Biggs, M.D., Medical Record 27(26):715-716 (June 27, 1885)
1885 "An Epidemic of Typhoid Fever at Plymouth, Pa. (Second Paper)," by Lewis H. Taylor, M.D., The Medical News 46(25):681-686 (June 30, 1885)
1885 "The Typhoid Fever Epidemic at Plymouth, Pa.," by Cyrus Edson, M.D., The Sanitarian 14:530-537 (June, 1885)
1885 Report Upon the Epidemic of Typhoid Fever at Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pa, by Morris Stroud French and Edward Oram Shakespeare
1885 Disinfection and Disinfectants. Preliminary Report made by the Committee of the American Public Health Association, by George M. Sternberg, M.D., Surgeon, U.S. Army | Also here |
1885 Report on the cholera-bacillus, by William Watson Cheyne
1886 "Water Purification: Its Biological and Chemical Basis," by Frankland Percy, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 85:197-220 (January, 1886)
1886 "The Official Refutation of Dr Robert Koch's Theory of Cholera and Commas," Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Sciences 26:303-316 (February, 1886)
1886 "Report upon the Epidemic of Typhoid Fever at Plymouth, Pennsylvania," by Lewis H. Taylor, M.D., First Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Pennsylvania.
1886 "Versuche über die Desinfection des Kiel-oder Bilgeraums von Schiffen," von Geh. Med.-Rath Dr. Koch und Reg.-Rath Dr. Gaffky, Arbeiten aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte 1:199-221 (1886)
1886 "The Bacteria in Asiatic Cholera," by Emanuel Edward Klein, M.D., The Practitioner 37(4):241-258 (October, 1886); 37(5):334-350 (November, 1886); 37(6):414-425 (December, 1886)
1886 Report and papers on cholera. Submitted by the Medical Office of the Local Government Board, 1886 | also here |
1886 "Report on Cholera by the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board," The Practitioner 37(5) 385-397 (November, 18886)
1886 "Typhoid fever, Gaffky (Dr.), The aetiology of enteric fever. Translated by Dr. J.J. Pringle," New Sydenham Society 115:203-257
1887 "Von Pattenkofer's latest views on cholera," The Lancet 130(3337):339-340 (August 13, 1887)
1887 "Untersuchungen über die desinficirende Wirkung des Kalkes," by Paul Liborius, Zeitschrift für Hygiene, 2:15-51 (1887)
1889 "Sanitary Works at Munich," by Prof. Dr. Max Von Pettenkofer, Weekly Abstract of Sanitary Reports 4(43):337-351 (October 25, 1889)
1889 "Desinfection der Typhus- und Choleraausleerungen mit Kalk," by E. Pfuhl, Zeitschrift für Hygiene, 6:97-104 (1889)
1889 The Bacteria in Asiatic Cholera, by Edward Klein
1890 "Ueber die desinficirende Eigenschaft des Chlorkalkes," by Dr. med. Franz Nissen, Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten, 8:62-77 (1890)
1890 Water Analysis for Sanitary Purposes: With Hints for the Interpretation of Results, Second Edition, Revised, by Edward Frankland
1891 "Possible Sterilization of City Water," by R. Meade Bache, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 29(135):26-39 (January-June 1891)
1892 "First Report to the Water Research Committee of the Royal Society, on the Present State of Our Knowledge concerning the Bacteriology of Water, with Especial Reference to the Vitality of Pathogenic Schizomycetes in Water," by Percy F. Frankland and Marshall Ward, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 51:183-279 (1892)
1893 "Einfaches Verfahren Wasser in grossen Mengen keimfrei zu machen," by Moritz Traube, Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten, 16:149-150 (1894)
1894
“The Electrical Purification of Water,” by Thomas M. Drown, Journal
of the New England Water Works Association 8(4):183-187 (June, 1894)
Page 185: the idea itself of chemical disinfection is repellent.
1894 "Einfaches Verfahren Wasser in grossen Mengen keimfrei zu machen," von Moritz Traube, Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten 16:149-150 (1894) | Moritz Traube |
1895 “Sand
Filtration of Water, with Special Reference to Results Obtained, at
Lawrence, Massachusetts,” by George W. Fuller, from American
Public Health Association, Public Health Papers and Reports 20:64-71
(1895).
Page 64: While chemicals have been of much aid in surgery by
bringing about antisepsis and asepsis, it is very improbable that people
would allow their drinking water to be drugged with chemicals, even with
the view of removing dangerous bacteria – indeed, such a method might
prove very dangerous in many cases.
1895 "Zur Herstellung keimfreien Trinkwassers durch Chlorkalk," by Marine-Stabsarzt Dr. Bassenge, commandirt zum Institute für Infectionskrankheiten, Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten, 20:227-244 (December, 1895)
1895 "Die Gewinnung von keimfreiem Trinkwasser durch Zusatz von Chlorkalk (Verfahren von M. Traube)," von Dr. Alois Lode, Archiv für Hygiene 24:236-264 (1895)
1896 "The Preparation of Germ-free Drinking-Water by means of Calcium Chloride," by Dr. Bassenge. From Zeitschrift für Hygiene, 1895, p. 227. Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 123:493
1896 "Water Purification in New Jersey," by Moses Nelson Baker, C. E. of Upper Montclair, N. J. (Associate Editor, "Engineering News," New York), Twentieth Annual Report of the Department of Health of the State of New Jersey. 20:229-266 (1896)
1896 Water and Water Supplies, by John C. Thresh
1897 "The
Typhoid Epidemic at Maidstone," Journal of the Sanitary
Institute 18(3):388 (October, 1897)
Under the personal supervision of Dr. Sims Woodhead, acting on behalf of
the water company, the reservoir and mains of the Farleigh area of water
supply at Maidstone were on Saturday night disinfected with a solution of
chloride of lime. About ten tons of the lime were mixed in the reservoir
with 200,000 gallons of water, and afterwards the mains throughout the
town were charged at full pressure with the solution. At a certain hour
the liquid was allowed to flow through the whole of the house connexions
in the districts concerned, and eventually the solution left in the mains
was got rid of through the various fire hydrants in the streets.
1897 Waterborne typhoid: a historic summary of local outbreaks in Great Britain and Ireland, 1858-1893 (with a tabular analysis of 205 epidemics). A report prepared for the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association by Ernest Hart
1897 Water Supply, Considered Principally from a Sanitary Standpoint, by William P. Mason
1898 "The History of Enteric Fever in Munich," The Lancet 151(3884):377-378 (February 5, 1898)
1898 "The History of Typhoid Fever in Munich," by Christopher Childs, Read January 21, 1898, Transaction of the Epidemiological Society of London 17:41-59 (1898)
1898 The Purification of Public Water Supplies, by John Willmuth Hill
1899 "Ueber Sterilisation des Wassers mittels Ozon," by Dr. Th. Weyl. 71. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte zu München
1899 "Keimfreies Trinkwasser mittels Ozon," von Th. Weyl," Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten 26:15-32 (1899) | also here |
1899 Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities, by Moses Nelson Baker
1899 Examination of water: (Chemical and bacteriological), by William Pitt Mason.
1899 The Microscopy of Drinking Water, by George Chandler Whipple
1900 Abstract of report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever in U.S. military camps during the Spanish War of 1898, by Walter Reed, Victor C. Vaughan, and Edward O. Shakespeare
1901 Typhoid fever and Typhus Fever, by Heinrich Curschmann; edited with additions by William Osler, M.D.; Translated under the direction of Alfred Stengel, M.D.
1901 "Chlorinated Lime (Trauabe's Method)," Public Water-supplies: Requirements, Resources, and the Construction of Works, by Frederick Eugene Turneaure and Harry Luman Russell
1902 Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health: With Special Reference to the Causation and Prevention of Infectious Diseases, by William Thompson Sedgwick
1903 Typhoid outbreak at Cornell University in Ithaca.
1903 “A
Chemical Method of Sterilizing Water Without Affecting its Potability.”
by Vincent B. Nesfield, Public Health. 15(7):601–3 (July, 1903)
1903 Contagious and Infectious Diseases: Disinfection and Disinfectants. An Introduction to the Subject, by Carl L. Barnes, M.D.
1903 Nineteenth
Annual Report of the State Board of Health and Vital Statistics of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Volume 1; Part 1
Pages 530-578: The Typhoid Fever Epidemic at Butler
1904 A Method of Destroying or Preventing the growth of Algae and Certain Pathogenic Bacteria in Water Supplies, by George Thomas Moore and Karl Frederic Kellerman. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Plant Industry - Bulletin No. 64.
1905. “A
Simple Chemical Process of Sterilizing Water for Drinking Purposes for
Use in the Field and at Home,” by Vincent B. Nesfield, The
Journal of Preventive Medicine. 8: 623-32.
1905 "Discussion
on Purification of Water for Domestic Use” by George C. Whipple,
from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 54
Part D:192-106 (1905).
Page 199: George C. Whipple - Thus in St. Louis the popular
prejudice against the use of alum in clarifying the water is said to be so
intense that a local engineer has said "it is very doubtful if alum could
be used, no matter how excellent the results which might be
obtained." One reason for this prejudice was well illustrated by the
following expression used in an editorial in one of their local papers:
"We don’t want to drink puckered water."
1906 “Disinfection
as a Means of Water Purification, with discussion,” by George C.
Whipple, Proceedings of the American Water Works Association
26:266-288 (1906)
Page 266: George C. Whipple - The idea of adding poisonous chemicals
to water for the purpose of improving its quality for drinking purposes
has generally been considered as illogical and unsafe, and unfortunately
most of the substances which have the power of disinfecting are oisonous
to a greater or less extent.
Page 282: William P. Mason - I very much question if the public at
large would be willing to disinfect water to-day. We are scarcely driven
that far yet.
Page 286: P.A. Maignen - Among the so-called "disinfectants" tried
may be cited copper, chlorine and oxalic acid. All these substances
are poisonous.
1906 "The Role of Public Water Supplies in the Spread of Typhoid Fever, as shown Chiefly by the Greatest Typhoid Epidemics," by George A. Super, Water and Gas Review 17(10):18-20 (April, 1907) | Part 2: 17(12):20 (June, 1907)
1907 “Pure Water,” Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 10:30 (January 15, 1907). Discussion of the Nesfield system of water purification.
1907 Pollution
of Illinois and Mississippi Rivers by Chicago Sewage, by
Marshall O. Leighton, USGS Water Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 194
A digest of the testimony taken in the case of the State of Missouri v.
the State of Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chicago.
1908 Typhoid Fever: Its Causation, Transmission and Prevention, by George Chandler Whipple
1909 "Typhoid fever: infection and prevention," by Mary Hinman Abel, The Journal of Home Economics 1(2):125-130 (April, 1909)
1909 Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual
Convention of the American Water Works Association | Also here |
The Sterlization of the
Jersey City Water Supply Company at Boonton, N. J., by Dr. J. L.
Leal
Description of the Process
and Plant of the Jersey City Water Supply Company for the Sterilization
of the Water of the Boonton Reservoir, by George W. Fuller
Description of Methods of
Operations of the Sterilization Plant of the Jersey City Water Supply
Company at Boonton, N. J., by George A. Johnson
Discussion on papers by
Messrs, Leal, Fuller and Johnson
1909 The Disinfection of Sewage and Sewage Filter Effluents, by Earle Bernard Phelps, USGS Water-Supply Paper 229
1910 "The Disinfection of Polluted Water," by Clyde Potts, C.E. '01, The Cornell Civil Engineer 18(9):342-348 (June, 1910)
1910 "Hyperchlorite Treatment of Public Water Supplies; Its Adapability and Limitations," A paper by George A. Johnson, New York, presented before the Milwaukee Convention of the American Public Health Association. The Engineering Record 62(12):321-323 (September 17, 1910)
1912 "The Development of the Hypochlorite Treatment of Drinking Water," by H. A. Whittaker, Meeting of March 19, 1912 Transactions of the Minnesota Pathological Society 1:64-70.
1912 "The Present Status of the Anti-Typhoid Campaign in Germany," by William W. Ford, M.D., Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 23(259):269-274 (September, 1912)
1913 The Purification of Public Water Supplies, by George A. Johnson, USGS Water-Supply paper 315
1913 Chloride of Lime in Sanitation, by Albert H. Hooker
1914 "Practical Talk on Water Purification," The Water Chronicle: Devoted to All Water Utilization, 4:(3): 125-132 (September, 1914) Good description of the Jersey City chlorination plant.
1914 "Disinfecting 200,000,000 Gallons of Water a Day - Experience with Chloride of Lime and Liquid Chlorine at Torresdale Filtration Plant [with discussion]," by Francis D. West, Wilson F. Monfort, Robert Spurr Weston, J. Walter Ackerman, H. F. Huy, C. A. Jennings, George A. Johnson and George C. Whipple, Journal of the American Water Works Association 1(3):403-455 (September, 1914) | Also here |
1915 “Truth
in Publicity,” Charles V. Chapin, American Journal of Public
Health 5(6):493-502 (June 1915)
Page 491: The foul emanations from decomposing organic matter were sucked
up from cellars by the warm air of the house and carried sickness and
death.
Page 495: Air was the chief vehicle of infection, nay, it was
infection itself. The emanations from cellars and untidy cupboards
which dealt death and destruction through the house have been referred to,
as well as the more specific effluvia which gave rise to yellow fever,
consumption, and diphtheria.
1916 Report on the Investigation Into the Causes of the Typhoid Fever Epidemic at Monroe, Michigan, Occurring During the Summer of 1915 by James W. Follin.
1916 Manual of American Steel and Wire Company's Process of Water Purification with Sulphate of Iron, January, 1916. This book was written by Charles Arthur Brown, and my thanks to William D. Gollnitz for bringing it to my attention.
1916 "Water Purification Plants in Large American Cities," Municipal Journal (July 13, 1916) 41(2):39 (July 13, 1916)
1916 "Sterilizing Water and Cleaning Mains," Municipal Journal 41:153-156 (August 10, 1916)
1917 Water Purification, by Joseph W. Ellms
1917 State Sanitation: A Review of the Work of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Volume 1, by George Chandler Whipple | Volume 2 |
1918 Chlorination of Water, by Joseph Race
1918 Typhoid Fever Considered as a Problem of Scientific Medicine, by Frederick Parker Gay
1920 "The natural history of typhoid fever in Baltimore, 1851-1919," by William Travis Howard, Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin 31(354-355):276-334 (August-September, 1920)
1920 “Water Supply: For Municipal, Domestic and Potable Purposes, Including Its Sources, Conservation, Purification and Distribution,” by Henry Wayland Hill, The Encyclopedia Americana, 29:39–65.
1921 "Water Supply and Water Purification, a Symposium," Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers 47:653-682 (1921)
1921 A
half century of public health: jubilee historical volume of the
American Public Health Association, in commemoration of the fiftieth
anniversary celebration of its foundation, New York City, November
14-18, 1921
Pages 161-180: Fifty Years of Water Purification, by George C.
Whipple, C.E.
1922 “The Chlorination of New England Water Supplies.” By William J. Orchard, Journal of the New England Water Works Association 36(1):99-101 (March 1922)
1922 Annual Report of Ohio Conference on Water Purification, Issues 1-8
1927 Max von Pettenkofer: his theory of the etiology of cholera, typhoid fever & other intestinal diseases : a review of his arguments and evidence, by Edgar Erskine Hume
1927 Evolution of preventive medicine, by Sir Arthur Newsholme
1928 "Modern Aspects of Chlorination of Water," by Norman J. Howard, Journal of the American Water Works Association 19(5):546-552 (May, 1928)
1931 "The Significance of Waterborne Typhoid Fever Outbreaks, 1920-1930," By Abel Wolman and Arthur E. Gorman, Journal of the American Water Works Association 23(2):160-201 (February, 1931)
1933 "Chlorination of Water, with special reference to the Cheltenham Supply," by Donald E. Morley, M.D., Perspectives in Public Health 54(9):446-446 (September, 1933)
1934 "Sketch of the History of Water Treatment," by Moses Nelson Baker, Journal of the American Water Works Association 26(7):902-938 (July, 1934)
1934 "Sir
Alexander Cruikshank Houston, 1865—1933," Biographical Memoirs
of Fellows of the Royal Society 1(3):334-344 (December, 1934)
Houston may be said to have devoted a large portion of the remainder of
his life to perfecting the analysis of water by the application of
bacteriology on thoroughly scientific lines with the result that to-day at
any rate as regards the chief danger, namely, pollution from sewage, the
purity and safety of water can be guaranteed; provided the methods of
analysis elaborated by him are applied.
1935 Sedgwick's Principles of sanitary science and public health. Revised and Enlarged by Samuel Cate Prescott, and Murray Philip Horwood | also here |
1939 "Water-borne Outbreaks in the United States and Canada and Their Significance," by Arthur Gorman and Abel Wolman, Journal of the American Water Works Association 31(2):225-373 (February, 1939)
1939 Water-borne Outbreaks in the United States and Canada and Their Significance, by Arthur Gorman and Abel Wolman. Reprint of the above article.
1944 “Destruction of Micro-Organisms,” Shih Lu Chang, Journal of the American Water Works Association 36(11):1192-1207 (November, 1944)
1947 "Etiological theory in America prior to the Civil War," by Phillis Allen, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2(4):492-498 (Autumn, 1947)
1949 The quest for pure water; the history of water purification from the earliest records to the twentieth century, by Moses Nelson Baker
1949 "Americans and the Germ Theory of Disease," by Phillis Allen, PhD thesis, Unversity of Pennsylvania
1950 “Forty Years of Chlorination: 1910–1949,” by Joseph Race, Journal Institution of Water Engineers and Scientists. 4:479–505.
1954 "Some Variant Theories in Opposition to the Germ Theory of Disease," by Phyllis Allen Richmond, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 9(3):290-303 (July, 1954)
1954 "American Attitudes toward the Germ Theory of Disease (1860-1880)," by Phyllis Allen Richmond, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 9(4):428-454 (October, 1954)
1954 Water Supply and Waste-water Disposal, by Gordon M. Fair and John C. Geyer
1971 "Reception of the Germ Theory of Disease in The American Journal of Pharmacy," by Robert A. Buerki, Pharmacy in History 13(4):158-168 (1971)
1972 Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936, by Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz
1973 "Pettenkofer
revisited: the life and contributions of Max von Pettenkofer (1818-1901),"
by Alfred S. Evans, Yale Journal of Biological Medicine
46(3):161-176 (June, 1973)
Page 169: Pettenkofer's interest and research extended to almost all
aspects of the environment: air, drinking and ground water, soil, sewage,
river pollution, heating, clothing, and the urban environment. He
established a clean water supply for the city of Thalkirchen as a model
for other cities. He influenced the burgomaster of Munich and the city
architect to design and provide a clean water supply from the mountains.
1977 Pragmatic environmentalist, sanitary engineer George E. Waring, Jr., by Martin V. Melosi
1984 "Robert Koch and the cholera vibrio: a centenary, by N. Howard-Jones, British Medical Journal 288(6414):379-381 (February 4, 1984)
1985 "Two errors in enteric epidemiology: the stories of Austin Flint and Max von Pettenkofer," by Alfred S. Evans, Reviews of Infectious Diseasess 7(3):434-440 (May-June, 1985)
1987 Death
in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years 1830-1910,
by Richard J. Evans
Pages 490-508: Pettenkofer's Last Stand.
1990 A Science of Impurity: Water Analysis in Nineteenth Century Britain, by Christopher Hamlin
1990 The
Sanitarians: A History of American Public Health, by John
Duffy
Page 201-202: The conquest of typhoid came in part from the
sanitarians' quest for pure water and in part from the findings of
bacteriology. In 1886, before the American medical profession was
convinced that typhoid resulted from a specific bacillus, the
Massachusetts State Board of Health established the Lawrence Experimental
Station, essentially an engineering laboratory to measure water quality
and study methods for improving it. In 1890 the town of Lowell requested
the state bacteriologist, William T. Sedgwick, to investigate an outbreak
of typhoid. Although he was unable to isolate the bacillus from the town's
various water supplies, he systematically traced the epidemic to its
source and thus pointed up the need to purify drinking water. Sedgwick's
findings and the work already done by Hiram Mills, head of the Lawrence
Engineering Laboratory, paved the way for the construction of the first
open slow sand filter in 1893, an effective method for producing safe
drinking water.
Almost at the same time, studies in Providence, 1893-94, and Louisville,
1895-97, demonstrated that the addition of coagulants to a mechanical
filtration system could remove bacteria. The net effect of this and other
research was that filtration of water was rapidly adopted in European and
American cities, with most American cities relying· upon mechanical
systems. By 1911 about 20 percent of America's urban population was using
filtered water. The next major step was the treatrnent of water with
chlorine. It was used fairly extensively in Europe in the treatment of
sewage in the late nineteenth century, but it was not until the early
years of the twentieth century that it was used to purify water. In 1908
Jersey City, New Jersey, began treating its water supply, and within a few
years chlorination was adopted by many cities. Chicago, which had one of
the highest typhoid rates in the country, solved itS problem, first, by
draining its sewers away from Lake Michigan, its water source, and,
second, through chlorinating its entire water supply by 1916. In
consequence, the typhoid rate, which had averaged 67 cases per 100,000
people in the 1890s, fell to 14 by 1910, and to 1 per 100,000 by 1919, the
lowest rate in the country.
1992 “Searching for a water supply connection in the Cabool, Missouri disease outbreak of Escherichia coli 0157:H7.” by E. E. Geldreich, Water Research 26(8):1127-37 (August, 1992)
1992 “A waterborne outbreak in Missouri of Escherichia coli O157:H7 associated with bloody diarrhea and death,” by D.L. Swerdlow, et al., Annals of Internal Medicine 117(10):812-819 (November 15, 1992)
1997 "American Attitudes toward the Germ Theory of Disease: Phyllis Allen Richmond Revisited," Nancy J. Tomes, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 52(1):17-50 (January, 1997)
1997 "The Maidstone typhoid outbreak of 1897: an important centenary," by R Stanwell-Smith, Eurosurveillance 1(29) (November 13, 1997)
1998 "A rivalry of foulness: official and unofficial investigations of the London cholera epidemic of 1854," by Nigel Paneth, Peter Vinten-Johansen, Howard Brody, and Michael Rip, American Journal of Public Health, 88(10):1545-1553 (October, 1998)
1999 "Typhoid
Rates and the Public Acquisition of Private Waterworks, 1880-1920,"
by Werner Troesken, The Journal of Economic History 59(4):927-948
(December 1999)
Progressive-Era reformers claimed typhoid, a waterborne disease, was more
prevalent in cities with private water companies than in cities with
public water companies. This article tests this claim for the 1880 to 1920
period. The evidence suggests private companies invested in water filters
more often than public companies, and that switching from private to
public provision of water did little to improve typhoid
1999 Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology, by Thomas D. Brock
1999 Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930, by Peter Baldwin
2000 "Uneasy Bedfellows: Science and Politics in the Refutation of Koch's Bacterial Theory of Cholera," by Mariko Ogawa, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 74(4):671-707 (Winter, 2000)
2001 The Advent and Use of Chlorination to Purify Water in Great Britain and the United States, encyclopedia.com
2002 Species and Specificity: An Interpretation of the History of Immunology, by Pauline M. H. Mazumdar
2008 "Water and Chicago's Mortality Transition, 1850-1925," Explorations in Economic History 45(1):1-26 (January 2008)
2009 "Crediting his critics' concerns: Remaking John Snow's map of Broad Street cholera, 1854," by Tom Koch and Kenneth Denike, Social Science and Medicine 69(8):1246-1251 (October, 2009)
2010 "1885 Cholera Controversy: Klein versus Koch," by Bruno Atalic, Medical Humanities 36(1):43-47 (June, 2010) | also here |
2011 The Epidemic: A Collision of Power, Privilege, and Public Health, by David DeKok | Also here (subscription required)| Ithaca typhoid patients and victims, 1903, by address |
2013 The Chlorine Revolution: Water Disinfection and the Fight to Save Lives, by Michael J. McGuire | Also here (subscription required) | Everything you need to know about chlorination in Jersey City.
2015 The Pox of Liberty: How the Constitution Left Americans Rich, Free, and Prone to Infection, by Werner Troesken
2016 Typhoid Fever: A History, by Richard Adler and Elise Mara
2018 Causality, Probability, and Medicine, by Donald Gillies
Cholera online, 1817 to 1900, National Library of Medicine
Also see the general bibliography page, which includes links to several lists of waterworks with information about pipes.
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© 2016 Morris A. Pierce