Miscellaneous Papers. 171 



least suflBciently so for all sanitary purposes. Thus the great mass 

 of rainfall, although grossly polluted when first finding its way 

 through the top layer of soil, under ordinary conditions is of a high 

 sanitary quality after having passed through ten or twelve feet of 

 soil. These waters, while of a high organic purity, become in 

 many places rich in inorganic matters and belong to the class known 

 as hard, or mineral waters; in many cases being so highly loaded 

 with sulphates, chlorides or carbonates as to be unfitted for do- 

 mestic use. 



On the other hand, ground waters may be basely polluted, in- 

 stead of purified, when they are on their passage through the earth. 

 If the earth is saturated with impurities, as may occur from leach- 

 ing cesspools, privy vaults, sink drains, barnyards, burying grounds, 

 or other sources of pollution, nature's purifying operations may 

 give way to one of intense pollution. 



Wells whose source of supply is from the so-called first stratum 

 of water, in the densely populated communities along the Arkansas 

 river and the Kaw river and its tributaries, are peculiarly suscepti- 

 ble to this form of ground- water pollution. The first stratum of 

 water is usually from eight to fifteen feet from the surface, with an 

 exceedingly porous and sandy soil intervening, and thus any unusual 

 or great amount of pollution overtaxes the purifying and filtration 

 properties of this soil, and there is a resulting contamination of the 

 underground water. 



The prosperity of the people in the smaller communities and 

 towns of the state is perhaps no better reflected than in the move- 

 raent to improve and modernize their homes. This calls for some 

 method of sewage disposal, and, in the absence of a sewerage sys- 

 tem, the disposal usually resorted to is the construction of the cess- 

 pool, and, in some instances, the use of an abandoned well. Thus 

 in the river valleys above referred to the ground water may be and 

 often is very badly polluted. 



Recently it was suspected that a cesspool situated about 150 

 feet to the west of a well, in a certain city on the Smoky Hill river, 

 was polluting the underground water. In order to determine 

 whether or not the liquid contents of the cesspool was finding its 

 way into the well, a solution of iron sulphate was put into the cess- 

 pool, and in about forty-eight hours the people who were using the 

 waters of the well were able to identify the astringent and bitter 

 taste of the iron. Chemical and sanitary analyses of the waters 

 of this well proved, what the solution of iron sulphate had already 



