168 The Ottawa Naturalist [Feb. 



DRINKING WATER AND HEALTH.* 



By Frank T. Shutt, M.A., F.R.S.C, Dominion Chemist. 



Of the many natural blessings we possess, good 1 ealth is 

 easily first in importance, if for no other reason than that it 

 enables us to enjoy life to make the most of life and to do 

 our duty by ourselves, our families and the State. Good health 

 means something more than freedom from disease and pain, 

 it implies strength and activity, physical and mental, to do our 

 work in the world and to do it at our best. It is indeed some- 

 thing to be prized and well guarded, for it is easier to maintain 

 than to get back again once having lost it. 



While still enjoying good health it is doubtful if we recognize 

 the obligation the religious obligation I might call it to protect 

 and preserve our health. To do so we must oftentimes be 

 willing to forego temporary pleasure and enjoyment. Too many 

 take little heed, until perhaps they come to middle life or later, 

 of those things and conditions that contribute towards the 

 conservation of health. Perhaps a better day is dawning. 

 The fundamentals of hygiene are being taught in our schools 

 and the rising generation should know something of the laws of 

 health. Hitherto, as a people, we have had to pick up here a 

 little and there a little, oftentimes learning by bitter experience 

 and perhaps too late. Forewarned is in a large measure to 

 be forearmed. At all events those who are to take our places 

 will not be able to urge ignorance in matters relating to food, 

 w r ater, fresh air and a great many other things all closely con- 

 nected with the preservation of health. 



But I would point out that a knowledge of these things, 

 necessary as it is, will not in itself be sufficient, there must be 

 the desire to profit thereby, to put it into practise. And with 

 all there must be the exercise of common sense, nothing can take 

 its place. We shall find if we will only cultivate this gift it 

 will help us along verv satisfactorily manv a time when science 

 is apparently silent as to which path to choose, what action to 

 take. 



Our health, as we all must know, is largely dependent upon 

 the character and amount of the food we eat and its freedom 

 from adulteration, the purity of the water we drink, the fresh- 

 ness of the air we breathe, and the character of the exercise we 

 take or of the work we do. To-night we are to consider one 

 of the more important of these factors the water we use for 

 drinking purposes. 



* A condensed account of a lecture delivered before the Ottawa 

 Field-Naturalists' Club, Ottawa, January 9th, 1912. 



