BACTERIA IN WATER. l6/ 



the water is perfectly trustworthy and his only care need be to 

 keep his spring clean and the water free from secondary con- 

 tamination. But if, as on many farms, he draws his supply 

 from a well, his problem is not so simple. 



THE WELL AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER. 



It is hardly possible to overestimate the care that should be 

 given in locating the well, or in guarding it, if this be the 

 source of drinking water. That many a case of typhoid fever 

 on the farm is directly attributable to the well is sure, and such 

 wells also prove the starting point of many an epidemic of ty- 

 phoid in a community, through the distribution of milk. In lo- 

 cating the well it should be placed where contamination is im- 

 possible. The most common, as well as the most dangerous 

 contamination of well water, comes, of course, from the privy 

 vault. Both vault and well are, for convenience, placed near 

 the house and frequently near each other. The well is sunken 

 several feet below the surface of the ground, while the vault is 

 close to the surface. The contents of the vault inevitably 

 soak into the ground and will be surely distributed in every 

 direction, taking naturally the course of water currents under 

 the surface. It is almost certain that, if the well is close at 

 hand, the water courses will lead to it and the contents of the 

 vault, in a very diluted condition, of course, will thus find 

 their way into the well. It requires no argument to demon- 

 strate the danger from such conditions. Nor will anyone fa- 

 miliar with agricultural communities fail to recognize that 

 exactly such conditions frequently exist. Indeed, they are 

 sometimes even worse than this, for one may find the vault 

 actually upon an elevated mound and the well sunk into the 

 soil at its foot not twenty feet away. 



Under such conditions one need not be surprised at the 

 spread of typhoid. A single case of the disease on the farm 

 will be sure to contaminate the vault, and will be almost as sure 



