Water and Ice 195 



become so filthy as not only no longer to 

 cleanse the water, but to actually contaminate 

 it as it percolates through. 



It is difficult to lay down rules by which the 

 safety of country and village wells may be 

 judged. But a very moderate acquaintance 

 with sanitary principles will usually guide one 

 to a just opinion. The argument which the 

 enquirer is most apt to encounter favoring the 

 salubrity of a country or village well, is that 

 the owners' fathers and grandfathers drank 

 water from the well all their lives, and they 

 and their families lived to a good old age. But 

 the fact is frequently lost sight of that the 

 slops and sewage of this long-lived race have 

 usually been accumulating in the soil about 

 the house, as the years have sped, and as 

 their towns and villages have grown the stables 

 and hog-pens have neared the ancestral roof- 

 tree. In short, that the sanitary conditions 

 have entirely changed. The fact is, that 

 wells, as they exist in most villages, and on 

 many farms in this country, are an abomina- 

 tion and a perpetual menace to the health and 

 lives of those who use them. 



