HOME HYGIENE. 



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few feet of the well. As has been graphically 

 described, "the householder digs two holes in 

 the back yard ; one is used for the privy-vault, 

 the deeper one is that from which he obtains 

 his supply of drinking-water." 



So large a proportion of the human family 

 being supplied with drinking-water more or 

 less contaminated, without visible harm, it fol- 

 lows that the dangers have either been greatly 

 overrated, or else sickness, alleged to be pro- 

 duced by other causes, must be attributed to 

 bad drinking-water. That wells thus situated 

 are contaminated, chemical analysis has abun- 

 dantly proved, and as privies must continue 

 to be used in connection with country-houses, 

 it is better to recognize the fact of the well- 

 water contamination and take means to prevent 

 it. Fortunately, this is sufficiently easy to ac- 

 complish. The house-sink should be drained 

 as before described, and the privy drained by 

 a separate drain entirely disconnected from the 

 house-drain. This drain should be tight and 

 connected with the waste- water carriage, if 

 practicable, and it is usually practicable, as 

 suitable tanks for catching and storing rain- 

 water can be attached to every house. The 

 privy-drain should be laid with great care, and 

 the joints made absolutely perfect, and, where 

 the ground at the disposal of the householder 

 is plenty, it should be at as great a distance 

 from the well as is compatible with conven- 

 ience. While it is not possible to fix upon the 

 proportion of organic admixture in drinking- 

 water which will render it absolutely poison- 

 ous, yet it is clear that any contamination is 

 more or less injurious, and if excreta from a 

 typhoid-fever or cholera patient are placed in 

 conditions favorable for admixture with drink- 

 ing-water, those diseases are likely to be com- 

 municated. In a recent epidemic at Oaterham, 

 England, the total number of cases was 342, 

 and there were 21 deaths. The epidemic orig- 

 inated from the water supplied by the Cater- 

 ham Company being contaminated with the 

 excreta from a single typhoid-fever patient 

 (" Marine Hospital Service Bulletin," No. 43, 

 May 3, 1879). 



A case equally in point is that of a severe 

 outbreak of typhoid fever at Clifton, England, 

 which was traced to the use of milk from a farm 

 where the pump was five yards from the privy- 

 vault. Previous to the outbreak a young lady 

 had been carried to the farmhouse to complete 

 her convalescence from typhoid fever ("Ibid., 

 No. 8, August 31, 1878). 



Owing to the great and increasing difficulty 

 of preserving well-water from contamination, 

 it is a question worthy of serious consideration 

 whether wells ought not to be abandoned as 

 a means of furnishing drinking-water in all 

 countries where the rainfall is heavy enough 

 to allow the storage of a sufficient quantity for 

 household purposes. 



In addition to the contamination of well- 

 waters from house-slops, sinks, and privies, it 

 is well known that the ova of many parasites 



are conveyed by means of drinking-water, and 

 this can only be prevented by boiling. 



Cisterns. In the construction of cisterns, it 

 is necessary to take into consideration the size 

 of the roof, with reference to the amount of wa- 

 ter that can be furnished. Mr. Bayles (" House 

 Drainage and Water Service," New York, 1878) 

 has given the following rule : "To calculate 

 the amount of water which will drain from a 

 roof, multiply the area of the roof in feet by 

 the average rainfall in a month in inches, and 

 the product by '623. This gives the number 

 of gallons which will drain from a roof in a 

 month. With a regular consumption for do- 

 mestic purposes, cistern capacity for one quar- 

 ter to three eighths this amount of water will 

 be ample. When a roof has a steep pitch, its 

 size should be determined by the area of ground 

 it actually covers." The city of Venice, until re- 

 cently, has been cited as a city where the cis- 

 terns reached the highest type of perfection ; 

 but an additional water-supply has lately been 

 provided, and the cisterns are not so much used 

 as formerly. Cistern-water to be fit for drink- 

 ing should be filtered, or the cistern should be 

 so constructed as to be in itself a filter. They 

 are usually placed in the ground, but in many 

 cases are in the attics of houses, or a tank is 

 constructed supported upon pillars or posts. 

 Cisterns are commonly walled with brick, laid 

 in hydraulic cement, and plastered smoothly 

 on the inside with the same material. In some 

 instances the water from the roof is received 

 through a charcoal tank, the overflow of which 

 empties into the main cistern. In this case 

 the water is pumped without any additional 

 filtration ; in others the cistern is so construct- 

 ed that the rain-water is obliged to pass suc- 

 cessively through charcoal, coarse gravel, fine 

 gravel, and sand before reaching the pump-res- 

 ervoir. A method which has the merit of 

 cheapness, and is at the same time efficient, is 

 as follows: The cistern is finished in any de- 

 sired shape and capacity, after which a wall 

 consisting of selected soft-burned bricks is laid 

 across one corner, if the cistern be square, or 

 a segment if it be a circle. The rain-water is 

 received into the larger cavity, and its gravity 

 forces it into the smaller one directly through 

 the bricks. This renders the filtration as per- 

 fect as can be, and at the minimum expense. 

 The rapidity with which the water permeates 

 and passes through the partition-wall is such 

 that in practice it has been found that, after a 

 short time in use, the water will stand in both 

 reservoirs at the same level. 



Public Water-Supply. In public water-sup- 

 plies the danger of contamination with organic 

 matter is in inverse ratio to the total amount 

 of water furnished. The experience of the 

 Rivers' Pollution Commissioners, in England, 

 and experiments in this country, have shown 

 how rapidly organic filth was oxidized and 

 rendered harmless when largely diluted. In- 

 deed, there is as yet but little danger in Amer- 

 ica from pollution of the rivers, and it will be 



