444 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



his well. He will as soon admit that the old family bible coutaius 

 the germs of eternal damnation as that the old family well 

 contains the germs of disease. His forefathers used its water for 

 generations back, and what was good enough for them is good 

 enough for him. Who cao look upon that sparkling fluid and pro- 

 nounce it impure? He fails to appreciate the fact that is is just 

 this long line of ancestors who have preceded him in the homestead 

 which had made the pollution of the well not only possible and pro- 

 bable, but almost an absolute certainty. At the risk of repeating 

 what many of you may have already heard, allow me to read the fol- 

 lowing parody on the "Old Oaken Bucket" from the pen of a former 

 president of the Board of Health of New York. 



REVISED FROM A SANITARY POINT OF VIEW. 



"With what anguish of mind I remember my childhood, 

 Recalled in the light of a knowledge since gained; 

 The malarious farm, the wet, fungus-grown wildwood, 

 The chills then contracted that since have remained; 

 The scum-covered duck pond, the pig-stye close by it. 

 The ditch where the sour-smelling house drainage fell; 

 The damp, shaded dwelling, the foul barnyard nigh it, — 

 But worse than all else was that terrible well. 

 And the old oaken bucket, the mold crusted bucket. 

 The moss-covered bucket that hung in the well. 



"Just think of it! Moss on the vessel that lifted 

 The water I drank in the days called to mind. 

 Ere I knew that professors and scientists gifted 

 In the water of wells by analysis find. 

 The rotting wood-fibre, the oxide of iron. 

 The algae, the frogs of unusual size, 

 The water — impure as the verses of Byron — 

 Are things I remember with tears in my eyes. 



"And to tell the sad truth— though I shudder to think it— 



I considered that water uncommonly clear, 



And often at noon when I went there to drink it, 



I loved it as well as I now love my beer, 



How ardent I seized it with hands that were grimy! 



And quick to the mud-covered bottom it fell, 



Then soon with its nitrates and nitrites, and slimy 



With matter organic, it rose from the well. 



"Oh! had I but realized, in time to avoid them. 

 The dangers that lurked in that pestilent draught, 

 I'n have tested for organic germs and destroyed them 

 With potass permanganate ere I had quaffed; 

 Or perchance I'd have boiled it and afterward strained it 

 Through filters of charcoal and gravel combined. 

 Or after distilling, condensing and regained it 

 In portable form, with its filth left behind. 



