WATER 23 



If the water is excessively hard it will probably be found that 

 some provision has been made for the collection and storage of 

 rain water. If this supply is drawn upon solely for domestic 

 purposes, as for clothes washing, no attention need be paid to it 

 so far as the veterinary surgeon is concerned, but if it is used in 

 connection with the dairy or for the live stock or for the making 

 >f >heep dips or for similar purposes then it should be examined. 



The conditions under which rain water is stored in the country 

 arc sometimes very objectionable. The author well remembers 

 inquiring into an outbreak of disease among a herd of milking 

 goats in Devonshire. The owner was under the impression that 

 rain water was the correct thing to give them, and had stored for 

 this purpose a quantity in a large vat. When the contents of the 

 vat were stirred up the smell was abominable. Many stockowners 

 have the notion that any filthy water is good enough for animals 

 to drink and yet, curiously enough, they are not backward in 

 blaming a water supply for causing abortion and other illness when 

 the supply is not under their own control. 



Rain water is sometimes stored in an underground tank to 

 which is attached a so-called filter-bed through which the water 

 passes before it enters the tank. This is an unsatisfactory method 

 of storing water, as the filter soon gets foul and rarely receives 

 attention. Attempts to store water in underground tanks after it 

 has been used for cooling milk have not met with success, the reason 

 being that the water from washing the outside of the cans becomes 

 dirty and contaminated with bacteria, and the subsequent storage 

 facilitates their multiplication. 



The examination of surface supplies, that is water from ponds, 

 streams, ditches and the like, is often of great importance, as all 

 these sources are peculiarly liable to pollution from sewage and 

 other objectionable matter. 



The ways in which surface waters become contaminated are 

 truly many and varied. Sewage may be discharged direct into 

 a pond or ditch or other surface supply without any pretence at 

 previous purification. In the country drainage into a pond or 

 ditch is often the easiest way to get rid of sewage, and there con- 

 sequently it goes. Such surface collections of water have from 

 time immemorial been the favourite burial place of cats and dogs, 

 while shepherds too frequently throw dead sheep into a handy 

 stream as the easiest way to get rid of them. The author was called 

 to a farm to make a post-mortem examination on a bullock (a 

 lightning claim was meditated), and found the dead beast with its 

 head and forequarters immersed in a stream that ran through neigh- 



