OUR ICE-SUPPLY AND ITS DANGERS. 677 



some more or less attractive name. The name on the ice-wagon, often 

 apparently indicating the source of the ice, may or may not actually do 

 80. A large part of our ice comes from the Hudson River, and, as a 

 rule, whenever and wherever Hudson River ice is more conveniently 

 and cheaply delivered than that from any other source, this is what 

 the consumer gets, no matter what the flaring legend of the cart may 

 seem to imply. 



Except the grocer, who visits us in guises as varied as are the wares 

 which he dispenses, the ice-man is that one of the outside ministrants 

 to our wants with whose appearance we are most familiar. Few escape 

 hearing the infernal clatter of the ash and garbage carts, which, under 

 the new regime, leave a trail of murdered sleep behind them in the 

 early morning, or the uncanny whoop and screech of the milk-dispens- 

 er. But they do not form such constant features of the street-life as 

 do the ice-carts and their officers after the world gets fairly astir. We 

 have all watched with interest the skill with which the experienced 

 ice-man cracks off his larger and smaller rectangular blocks, and the 

 ingenuity which he exhibits, when it is not carried in-doors, in select- 

 ing a sunny place for its deposition on the steps. The never-failing 

 attraction of the ice-cart for peripatetic children is the occasion of 

 many picturesque street scenes, and not infrequently of serious acci- 

 dents, for every now and then an ice-block falls off behind, and woe 

 to the youngster who happens to be in its way, for ice weighs about 

 fifty-eight pounds to the cubic foot. 



There is yet another phase in the story of the ice which we must 

 not overlook. We have been wont to believe that the fragment of ice 

 which forms such a constant and pleasing adjunct to our glass of water 

 is the very ideal of purity. But the common belief that, in freezing, 

 water purifies itself from all kinds of contamination, has been shown 

 to be quite untrue ; and, ungraceful as is the task of dispelling so 

 pleasing an illusion, we shall do unwisely if we ignore the revelations 

 of modern science, and for the sake of a momentary mental quietude 

 remain oblivious to a real danger which the indiscriminate use of ice 

 for drinking purposes unquestionably entails. 



Nearly all natural water contains considerable numbers of tiny 

 vegetable organisms called bacteria. So small are they, for the most 

 part, that thousands upon thousands of them, if ranged side by side, 

 would scarcely reach across the head of a pin. Most of them are not 

 only, so far as we know, entirely harmless when taken into the system 

 in moderate quantities, but they are among the most important factors 

 contributing to the cleanliness and continued salubrity of our surround- 

 ings. Wherever under ordinary conditions a bit of organic matter, 

 animal or vegetable, dies, these tiny structures appear and tear it to 

 pieces, atom by atom, using a very small proportion as food, and fur- 

 nishing the remainder in suitable innocuous form for the nutrition of 

 animals and other plants in turn. There seems to be at first something 



