The Remarkable Life and Career of Ellen Swallow Richards: Pioneer in Science and Technology

Chapter 16

Under Water Again

“It is hard to find any place in the world where the water does not show the effect of human agencies.”

~ Ellen Swallow Richards

Ellen kept speaking out on the subject of water quality, insisting that, although it is essential for life, water was causing countless deaths. It was time for another survey to further examine disease-causing water pollution. This time she partnered with Dr. Thomas M. Drown, a medical doctor and senior MIT scientist. He had replaced Professor Nichols as chief consulting chemist with the Massachusetts State Board of Health after Nichols died in 1886. Ellen and Dr. Drown conducted a second, more extensive two-year water study that began in 1887. The goal of this new and unparalleled project, known as “The Great Sanitary Survey,” was to find out which water in the state was polluted and how badly. This water survey involved travel throughout the entire state and in all kinds of weather.

As with the earlier water survey, Ellen was, in her words, “still the number two man,” although once again it was she who was responsible for most of the work. In the testing of rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes in Massachusetts, Ellen and her assistants examined 40,000 water samples, representing the water supply of eighty-three percent of the state’s population. Upon the samples taken, they performed more than 100,000 analyses of water and sewage in all and they examined the chlorine content in each specimen. Unless the water being tested is ...