342 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



With reference to wells, these are generally sunk as near 

 to the houses as is convenient, but rarely beyond the 

 drainage area of the byre, the stable, the piggery, and the 

 privy. As a rule, all seems fair on the surface ; but deep and 

 out of sight there is a cavity, the receptacle of the decomposed 

 and filtered essence of every living thing above. 



The question may naturally suggest itself, Why, if things 

 are so dreadfully bad, is there not more disease and death ? 

 Primo loco, Inhabitants of small villages and roadside places, 

 where wells are most common, are as a rule living in pure air, 

 and are consuming plain, wholesome food, and thus are there- 

 fore presumably existing under circumstances better calculated 

 to withstand the effects of impure water ; or, secundo loco, We 

 may have to refer to the investigations of Koch, Pasteur, 

 Tyndall, or others who have been working in the same field. 

 It is possible that people living under such conditions as I 

 have indicated have partaken of putrefactive microbes, and 

 have thus been innoculated by attenuated forms of these; 

 and to me this seems a not unnatural conclusion to come to, 

 knowing as I do of many instances of diptheric sore throats 

 and other abnormal conditions which have prevailed in 

 districts where I have ascertained the unmistakable badness 

 of the water supply. 



If we study but for a little the recent works of the autho- 

 rities I have just named, it will not be difficult to under- 

 stand how it is that summer visitors from cities going to 

 country places, not unfrequently keep ailing during their 

 rustication, and return to their town homes to be laid low 

 with typhoid or dyptheric symptoms, if indeed they are not 

 made subjects long ere that time has arrived. 



There seems but one remedy for the undoubtedly at present 

 existing state of matters, and it is not far to seek. To every 

 district there should be appointed a thoroughly qualified 

 medical officer of health, whose duty it shall be to inquire 

 into the water supply of every house, either by himself 

 chemically and microscopically examining the water, or by 

 submitting it to the public analyst of his district. . . . 



