SANITARY ESSENTIALS. 327 



our beverages ; a necessity to preserve sweet and wholesome 

 our perishable articles of food, and to assist the sick. 



Many people believe that ice is always pure ; that, in freez- 

 ing, water is cleared of its impurities : which is partly true, 

 as ice is always more pure than the water from which it 

 forms. But there have been repeated outbreaks of sickness 

 caused by ice taken from the surface of stagnant ponds con- 

 taining large quantities of decomposing organic deposit : 

 therefore we should be careful to secure our ice-crop from 

 only pure sources. 



An account of the outbreak of sickness in the summer of 

 1875, at Rye Beach, caused by impure ice, as given by Dr. 

 A. H. Nichols in the Seventh Report of the Massachusetts 

 Board of Health, is worthy of attentive, careful perusal. 



We can ask the chemist to ascertain, by the manipulations 

 and tests of his wonderful art, the nature and degree of 

 impurity present in water. He will find the inorganic mat- 

 ters held in solution, or suspension, and determine with con 

 siderable certainty the organic impurities, as indicated by 

 the nitrogen, ammonia, and albuminoid ammonia ; but that 

 indefinable unknown entity, miasm, or germ, which often 

 pollutes water, to spread disease and death among those who 

 drink it, eludes his search, and defies his re-agents, so that 

 he cannot detect with positive certaint}-, in many instances, 

 a dangerous pollution of water. 



John Wesley remarked, " Cleanliness is second only to 

 godliness ; " and jNIohammed, that " the practice of religion 

 is founded on cleanliness, which is one-half the faith, and the 

 key of prayer." 



To these wise sayings let us add the aphorism of Hippoc- 

 rates, the father of medicine : " Pure air, pure water, and a 

 clean soil." 



Cleanliness of the soil claims attention as one of the im- 

 portant sanitary essentials of the home and farm. 



How to dispose of household waste, dirty slops and sink- 

 water, human and animal excrement, so as to prevent a nui- 

 sance and preserve air and water supply from pollution, is a 

 problem that has taxed the wisdom of wise men since the 

 days of INIoses. 



Our fathers built their houses convenient to the highway, 

 over cellars dug deep in the earth, drained of surplus water 



