the stream was comparatively unpolluted, its banks were occupied at eligible sites by dwellings of the better sort. The increase of pollution and the consequent nuisance occasioned by it have driven from the banks throughout the lower portion of the river those who could afford to establish new homes in more attractive places, and the houses once occupied by these people have been taken by a poorer population, or by manufactories that seek the stream for commercial advantages or to be at a distance from neighbors likely to complain of offensive processes incident to the business there carried on. In concluding their report, the joint board of 1894

made this statement: "Your board feels that no treatment of the Charles River can be entirely satisfactory which does not regard the condition of the river above and in Waltham. At the boundary of that city, by the terms of the act under which we are directed to make our investigation and report, our labors end."

It will be remembered that the plan submitted by the commission of 1894 called for the preservation of the public reservation along the banks of the river up to the line between the city of Waltham and the town of Watertown. At certain points this public reservation is bounded by existing streets; at certain other points new streets would have to be constructed, for the purpose of limiting the amount of land to be taken to the smallest area necessary to procure a satisfactory reservation. It is understood that the appropriation subsequently made by the Legislature of that year for the purpose of enabling the Metropolitan Park Commission to take such land was not sufficient to carry out the entire plan as recommended.

One of the disagreeable incidents of the failure to complete this plan is shown by the use of a portion of the low land near the river in Waltham for the erection of a manufacturing establishment, which is likely to be an injury to the appearance of the banks and the comfort of residents in the vicinity; and we take this occasion to again call attention to the necessity of securing the banks of the stream below the Waltham line and above the centre of Watertown from still further encroachment.

It must not be understood, from the language just used, that we wish to banish from the banks of the stream all manufacturing establishments. We recognize the necessity to many of them of the location which they now occupy; but it is also true that

there are located here some manufacturing establishments which almost of necessity involve a greater or less injury to the district in which they are placed, and it does not seem to us reasonable that the centre of one of the most attractive portions of the metropolitan area should be forever given up to uses for which many less attractive spots are equally available.

The first thing likely to impress a person looking at a map of the district above the dam of the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham is the large area occupied by the water surface of the river above that point. On any pleasant day of the warmer season of the year this surface is a resort for boats of every description, used for the purposes of innocent and healthful enjoyment, not only by the people of the neighboring towns but by visitors from the whole metropolitan district, and, if nothing else could be done, it would be the part of wisdom to take for public uses this area, at least. Almost the only circumstance which at present seriously impairs the attractiveness or the healthfulness of this water surface and the banks bordering it is the use made of the water by the manufacturing establishments which control the principal dam. Whenever the water is drawn several feet below the level of the top of the dam, as it occasionally is in the seasons of protracted drought, the muddy banks or shores are exposed. As the stream for a large part of its course is still the public sewer of the district, much putrescible animal and vegetable matter is deposited upon these exposed banks and soon enters into decomposition, becoming a source of discomfort and positive injury even to the health of those who visit the stream for purposes of recreation or who live upon its banks.

To take such control of the stream as would prevent material changes in the level above this dam would probably inflict at most only a slight damage upon this manufacturing industry. It is a damage, however, that can readily be estimated and easily paid for. The limit which we should recommend to be placed upon the water of the river at this point and at all points where dams exist is that the establishments should be restrained in their use of the water of the river to the actual capacity of the river. That is to say, a diurnal variation of the surface of the water of the river is unavoidable, and does not appear to us to be the source of danger; but the river should at no time be so far drawn upon during the hours of

use of the water that the volume of water thus used could not be replaced by the accumulation through the portion of the day when the water is not used.

If it were possible to actually take possession of a strip of land on both banks of the river above the more closely built up portions of the city of Waltham, we believe, having regard to a long future, that it would be a wise investment; and we advise that some portions of the banks of the river should now be taken, either because they are so attractive in themselves that the loss of their attractiveness would be a serious injury to the appearance of the district, or because they are so unattractive that they are necessarily of small value, and likely to be occupied by objectionable establishments and residences.

In few districts in the metropolitan area have the residents themselves shown a more unselfish interest in the development of their local public grounds than along the banks of this stream, and the river is used as a place of healthful recreation by crowds drawn from beyond the limits of the towns that border upon the stream.

With that inevitable growth of population that is sure to come, the importance of this territory lying in the heart of the metropolitan district must year by year grow, and the difficulties of obtaining a public ownership just as rapidly increase.

Aside from the æsthetic and recreative interest which the beautiful shores of this river possess, and paramount to it, is the question of their healthfulness; and in this relation no disease has in recent years attracted more attention, or deserved more, than intermittent. fever, or the disease due to the so-called malarial influences. The real importance of this disease cannot be measured by the deaths which are recorded as due to it. The disabling effects of it cling to the unfortunate subject for years, destroy the capacity for work and diminish the enjoyment of life. Communities which have long suffered from the disease would consider no expenditure of money extravagant which would free them from it; and portions of this district have already suffered enough in recent years to realize how grievous the hardships inflicted by a perhaps unnecessary malady

are.

Amid all the uncertainties that surround the origin of the disease, the experience of mankind is united upon this, that variations in the water level of a stream or pond create conditions favorable

to the spread of malaria. Nowhere in the district about Boston are these conditions of a variable water level, at the season of the year when the malarial influences are most active, more marked than above the dam at Waltham. The large amount of organic matter necessarily present in the stream undoubtedly contributes something to the danger. So long as the banks are covered by water the processes of decomposition go on slowly, but on the exposed shores sun and air hasten on these processes of decay, with results which the people have always instinctively and justly feared.

These considerations emphasize the desirability, from the sanitary point of view, of maintaining the river's surface at a level as nearly uniform as possible, and in this matter the interests of public health and popular recreation concur.

In November, 1894, the State Board of Health issued a circular, which was addressed to physicians living in the cities and towns bordering upon the Charles River from Watertown to Dedham, for the purpose of obtaining information in answer to the following questions :

1. When did intermittent fever first appear in your town, judging from your own observations?

2. Has it been more or less prevalent in your town during the past five years than previously?

3. Have any means been taken for its prevention, such as the drainage of wet lands, or other methods of improvement?

Fifty-seven physicians replied to these circulars, many of them very fully. The compilation of the replies was intrusted to Dr. J. J. Thomas, who also visited personally all of the infected districts. Replies were received from West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Dedham, Dover, Needham, Waltham, Wellesley and Weston. The occurrence of a few scattered cases in these towns from 1875 to 1885 "points to the presence of infected foci which, under favorable conditions, have become starting-points for its spread in the infected region."

The following summary gives the results of the replies to the second question, relative to its comparative prevalence in the five years (1890-94):

Nearly ninety per cent. of the reported cases occurred during the months of May, June, July, August, September and October. In regard to the condition of the land near the river, Dr. Thomas says: "Both along the river itself and beside the various tributary streams is found much swampy and poorly drained ground. Not only is this true, but in many places the river itself spreads out over