THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. I2Q 



filthy as not only no longer to cleanse the 

 water, but to actually infect or 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 en- 

 tirely changed. The fact is, that wells, as they 

 exist in most villages, and on many farms in 

 this country, are an abomination and a per- 

 petual menace to the health and lives of those 

 who use them. 



