CONSEEVATION OF HEALTH 235 



not stricken with fatal diseases was because their 

 bodies were in condition to resist diseases, but 

 alas! the cemeteries contain the decayed and de- 

 caying bodies of scores of people whose bodies 

 could not resist or throw off these disease germs 

 and so they were stricken down before their time, 

 upon each of whose tombstones should be inscribed 

 "A Victim of the Contaminated Well," as a warn- 

 ing to the living. 



A short time ago the author visited a farm home 

 where the good wife of the farmer lay stricken 

 with a severe case of typhoid fever. For location, 

 the farm was beautifully and healthfully situated. 

 So the author began to look about to see if he could 

 find the source of the dread disease. The yards 

 surrounding both home and barn were ideal. 

 They, as well as all out buildings were clean, well 

 drained and free from any filth which would har- 

 bor typhoid germs. Knowing that typhoid fever 

 is, in the largest number of cases, contracted from 

 typhoid germs found in the drinking water, the 

 author investigated the well and found an alarm- 

 ing state of affairs, which in his judgment, was the 

 source of the disease, yet the family seemed utterly 

 unconscious of this fact. The well was situated 

 close to the house in an angle of the building. It 

 was a shallow well covered with large boards laid 

 upon the ground around the well, which left large 

 cracks between each board. This loosely con- 

 structed platform was about fifteen feet square, 

 and to enter the kitchen and another room of the 

 house, it was necessary to pass over it. The dirt 

 of the barnyard and barns were carried by the feet 

 upon this platform. The dirt from the home was 



