THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL, 



Vol. XVIII. OCTOBER, 1897. No. 10. 



Public Water Supply for Small Towns. 



By M. a. VEEDER, M. D., 



LYONS, N. Y. 



Drinking water that is manifestly bad does not make 

 everyone who uses it sick. Even when the mains and 

 reservoirs of a public water-system have been infected 

 by such a poison as that of typhoid it is only exception- 

 ■»]lly and for limited periods that as many as one percent 

 of those using the water contract the disease. An out- 

 break of 2,000 cases in a population of 200,000 is ordinar- 

 ily regarded as a severe epidemic, and yet this is at the 

 rate of only one person in a hundred. It is this immu- 

 nity on the part of the great mass of the people that per- 

 mits infected systems of water-sujiply to continue in 

 operation. If there were no resisting power on the part 

 of the individual, all would die on the slightest expos- 

 ure and the source of danger would be thoroughly iden- 

 tified and avoided. As it is, however, for every one that 

 contracts the disease there may be as many as a hundred 

 who escape. Thus it becomes a question of probabilities, 

 and there is a chance for much plausible theorising and 

 controversy. Gradually, however, as the result of increas- 

 ing observation and experience, crude ideas that have 

 prevailed are being eliminated and the truth of the mat- 

 ter established. 



Only a few years ago the most essential point in the 

 mprovemeut of water-supply was thought U> be. the 



