44 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



These same people will not hesitate to drink well-water that they 

 know nothing about, which may contain dilated untreated sewage. 



A soft well-water from a source free from contamination is excellent 

 for any purpose. Wells in this section, on account of the limestone, 

 would usually furnish a hard water that requires a large amount of 

 soap and forms a boiler scale, making it an undesirable water for the 

 laundry or for manufacturing purposes. For general public use, of 

 course, the only requirement would be a high rate of flow, to furnish an 

 abundant supply. 



The third source of water-supply to be considered — surface-water 

 — may be described as a combination of rain water and ground- water. 

 This water is usually from lakes, rivers, or impounding reservoirs. 

 In southeastern Kansas there are no large lakes ; hence the streams 

 are the only source of surface-water to be considered. 



To be entirely pure, a surface-water should be collected from an 

 uninhabited region. New York city obtains its water-supply from 

 surface-water. Considerable areas have been depopulated, farms 

 have been condemned, and even whole villages have been removed 

 from the watersheds of its reservoirs. It has become a great problem 

 to furnish a sufficient supply of pure water, and at present they are 

 contemplating still further operations of the same kind. 



In southeastern Kansas the rivers necessarily receive the drainage, 

 not only from houses but from streets and barn-yards. The organic 

 matter in this drainage will be removed and destroyed, if there is 

 sufficient dilution and if there is a sufficient lapse of time between 

 the contamination and the use of the water. The greatest danger lies 

 in contamination by disease germs. Some are nearly always present 

 in the sewage of a city. 



An illustration of the effect of such contamination is the typhoid 

 epidemic that raged in the Hudson valley in 1890-91. Prof. William 

 P. Mason, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Water-supply, p. 83), 

 investigated in person, and describes it somewhat as follows: "The 

 epidemic began at Schenectady in July, 1890. The drainage of 

 Schenectady passes into the Mohawk river. Typhoid fever broke 

 out at Cohoes, farther down the river, in October, and at West Troy 

 in November. These cities obtain their water-supply from the Mo- 

 hawk, and return their sewage into the Mohawk and the Hudson. 

 Typhoid fever broke out at Albany, six miles below West Troy, in 

 December. Albany's water-supply is obtained from the Hudson, op- 

 posite the city. There was practically no typhoid in Waterford and 

 Lansingburgh, cities connected to Cohoes by bridges, but cities that 

 obtain their water-supply from the Hudson above the Mohawk junc- 

 tion and from the hills, respectively. There was also no fever in 

 Troy proper, supplied with water from the Hudson above the Mo- 



