he maximum daily
consumption at the time mentioned arose almost to 100,000,000 gal.,
with the result that, before normal conditions were restored, the
reservoirs of the system were almost depleted.

This had a beneficial effect, as provision was made for an active
campaign for reducing the waste of water, which was known to be very
large. These investigations, using the pitometer, were begun in
July, 1906, and have been pursued continuously since that time, with
most excellent results. Up to January, 1909, leaks aggregating about
12,000,000 gal. per day were detected and eliminated, and about half
the house services had still to be covered by the pitometer bureau.

Although this reduction in waste has brought about an apparent
increase in the cost of filtration, its economical results have been
far-reaching. The causes which brought about this investigation also
resulted in securing an appropriation for the study of the question
of increased supply. The writer was in charge of these studies, and
the most significant conclusion was that, owing to the excellent
results of the efforts for waste restriction, the total consumption
and waste of water in the district during the next few years would
be far enough below the safe working capacity of the existing
aqueduct system to make it entirely safe to postpone the
construction of new works, involving the expenditure of several
million dollars, in spite of the threatening conditions of a few
years ago.

There has been so much controversy over typhoid fever in the
District of Columbia that the writer hesitates to discuss this
subject. Viewing the situation through the perspective of several
years, however, it does not seem to be as hopeless as the criticisms
of four or five years ago would lead one to believe.

In Table 9, showing the typhoid death rates, out of nine years given
prior to 1905-06, when the filters were started in operation, only
one shows an annual death rate as low as the highest one since that
year. Further than this, the annual average typhoid death rate for
the period since that year has been one-third lower than for a
corresponding period before the filters were started.

The exhaustive researches of the Public Health and Marine Hospital
Service into this whole question, covering a period of about four
years, have raised the present filtered water supply of the District
of Columbia above any well-founded criticism. There has long been a
strong and gr