DRINKING-WATER FROM AGRICULTURAL LANDS. 47 



water-basins through the application of organic manure to their gather- 

 ing-surfaces, for agricultural purposes, and the consequent pollution of 

 the water derived therefrom. 



It is well known that many years ago the pollution of the water- 

 courses began to excite public attention in England, and the labors of 

 the several " Rivers Pollution Commissions," and other sanitary com- 

 mittees organized by authority of Parliament, bear testimony in their 

 elaborate and invaluable reports to the truth that humanity can no 

 lono-er afford to ijmore that foul water will breed disease. The dense 

 population of England, and the resultant mass of concentrated filth, 

 have there compelled attention to those laws of health that we, with our 

 enormous area of comparatively thinly-settled country, and the conse- 

 quent high dilution of foul water and foul air, have felt safe in disre- 

 garding. This feeling of safety is, however, fallacious; for, as facts 

 attest, "filth-diseases" are as liable to break out in an isolated house 

 as in a crowded city, if the fundamental hygienic laws are violated. 

 The distino-uished labors of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, 

 as well as those of various other similar boards, bring the subject home 

 to us in a forcible manner, and the sooner we know what sort of water 

 we are drinking the better for us and for those who succeed us. 



As fair water is at once a prime necessity and a priceless blessing, 

 so foul water is a scourge and curse ; nor will any but a sewage-rectify- 

 ing enthusiast hesitate for an instant which to choose, provided he has 

 the means of knowing one from the other. Gross pollution is sensible 

 to the sight, the taste, the smell, and we instinctively revolt ; lesser 

 pollution, though perhaps not apparent to any of the senses, yields its 

 secret to the chemist's skill; while infinitesimal pollution eludes all, 

 even the art of the chemist himself, revealing its presence only in its 

 fatal effects, the mortality statistics proving the presence of that subtile 

 poison chemical analysis is powerless to detect. Special stress should 

 be laid on this latter point, because the popular cry generally is, where 

 water is suspected, " Let's have it analyzed ! " whereas the truth is, 

 beyond a certain point, the chemist can tell us nothing at all about it. 

 Sir Benjamin Brodie, in speaking of the detection of infinitesimal pol- 

 lution, says :"...! think you have a much better chance of getting 

 at these relations through accurate medical statistics, properly applied, 

 than you have through chemical analysis, because chemical analysis is 

 one of tlie poorest things possible to reach those delicate quantities. 

 You cannot get at those small quantities at all ; chemical analysis must 

 be limited by our power of weighing and measuring. We can only do 

 those two things. We can weigh and we can measure, and we can do 

 that with certain accuracy, and there we stop ; but that accuracy is 

 not capable of being multiplied ad infijiitum. It may go on to a cer- 

 tain point, but we cannot go beyond that point." 



Having once determined in what pollution consists, then any sus- 

 picious water should be unhesitatingly condemned. Colonel Adams 



