THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 133 



or in the water in the vicinity of towns is one 

 of those barbaric practices which strangely 

 enough still widely prevails in spite of the fact 

 that both efficient and cheap apparatus for 

 burning it are well known and employed by 

 many of the more intelligent and cleanly com- 

 munities. Thus the soil and the shores of 

 streams and other bodies of water near towns 

 are often polluted. 



If sewage were everywhere systematically 

 destroyed, instead of being permitted to run 

 into and pollute the streams and lakes, which, 

 from their size and situation, afford the natural 

 water and ice supplies to towns in their vicin- 

 ity, the problem, on which so much depends, of 

 obtaining pure and safe water and ice would 

 be much easier of solution. 



