1893-1894 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

FIFTH lUFXNIAL KKPORT. 77
amount of albuminoid ammonia. As a result of the correspondence
which ensued between Mr. T. H. Bain, Clerk
of the City Board of Health, and myself the State Board
was recjuested to send "a committee to investigate the water
supply. In compliance with this request President Bahuson
designated Dr. Geo. G. Thomas and myself.
After an
inspection of the works and water-shed for a mile and a
half above the intake, various inquiries and consultation,
we prepared and transmitted a full report, as follows:
Raleigh, X. C, 3Iay 3, 1894.
T. H. Bain, Esq., Sccrdarij City Board of Health, Goldsboro, X. C,
Dear Sir:— The undersigned, constituting the Committee of the State
Board of Health appointed bj' its President at the request of your Board
to inspect the public water suj^ply of your city and make recommendations
or suggestions in regard to the same, beg leave to report through
you as follows:
An inspection of the water-slied of Little river, extending not more
than a mile and a half above the iHuni)ing station, revealed several
sources of contamination:
1. A large ditch draining the land west of that portion of the town
near the depot of the Xorth Carolina Railroad, the rice mill, and all the
land between these localities and the river. On the slope midway
between the rice mill and the river we noted a number of small houses
occupied by negroes. Tlie yards were dirty, there were hog-pens on
several, and as no privies were in evidence we assume that the human
excrement, in common with all other kinds of tilth, is deposited upon
the surface of the ground to
towards which all these lots slope.
be washed by the first lain into the ditch
2. About three hundred yards north and east of the point at which
the ditch crosses the county road going towards Hook's bridge another
stream runs across the road and empties into the river an eighth of a
mile above the pumping station. This stream rises in or near a small
hamlet called "Greenleaf" and drains all the open land between this
settlement and the river. The man in charge of the station informed
us that during heavy rains this stream was laden with filthy matter.
3. One mile and a half above the pump-house there empties into the
river a moderately large branch which supplies water for a whiskey distillery
and flows through the large hog-pen attached to the establishment.
About one hundred hogs are penned and fed, on both sides of this stream
and in large open boxes over it, upon the refuse of the distillery. Tlieir