1884.] HEALTH OF THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 135 



country can, in nine cases out of ten, be traced to tlie use of im- 

 pure well water, made so by the proximity of sink-drains, cess- 

 pools, privy- vaults, or tbe leachings of manure-heaps. Boards of 

 Health all over the land are calling attention to these facts, medi- 

 cal journals are filled with such instances, while every physician 

 can recall the memory of hearths made sad and desolate by 

 disease, which he knows entered in at this unnoticed door. Mind 

 you, farmers, I do not tell you that your wells are all contami- 

 nated, for I know that nothing will raise one's resentment quicker 

 than to be told that their premises are unclean, but I would advise 

 you to have an eye to them all the same when you get home, and 

 if you can then view them from the stand-point that we are now 

 occupying, sweep them away as you would a murderer or seducer 

 who was trying to rob you of the fair members of your family : 

 for pure water is as necessary to good health as morality is to 

 godliness. 



In speaking of the out-buildings let me call attention to the quite 

 general fault on New England farms, at least those outside of the 

 immediate precincts of villages, and if I use the English language 

 without clothing my ideas in obscure and general terms, know 

 that it is because I desire to be plainly understood. I allude to 

 the situation so frequently selected for the privy, oftentimes in the 

 corner of the yard or garden, in full view of passers-by on the 

 highway, and the "men-folks" at the barn, thus completely pro- 

 hibiting its use by every modest-minded person, who necessarily 

 waits for the mantle of darkness to screen them as they pass 

 thither, and thus by postponement laying the foundation for an 

 habitual state of constipation, which in its turn undermines the 

 digestive organs, and brings permanent ill health. For obvious 

 reasons this is different in towns and cities; therefore this diseased 

 condition, which is so fearfully prevalent in the women of the 

 country, is scarcely known by their sisters in the city. For 

 charity's sake, for decency's sake, let this state of things no longer 

 exist. 



The interior of the farm house as a general thing has about as 

 many objections, when considered as aids to disease as the exterior. 

 New England houses, as a rule, I have found to be well ventilated, 

 excepting perhaps certain portions. This is not due so much, 

 however, to the ingenuity of the builder, as it is to the force of 

 the wind, which will not be kept out. A principal exception is 



