102 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



have been conducted with a zeal and thorough- 

 ness which deserve the highest praise. It is in 

 looking at the results achieved by the city of 

 Lawrence in regard to its water-supply that some 

 conception can be obtained of the immense im- 

 portance to the community of the scientific 

 experiments conducted in the State Laboratory. 

 No expense has been spared, and for years past 

 elaborate and costly experiments on a large 

 scale have been carried out to determine the 

 most efficient manner in which water may be 

 rendered fit and safe for drinking. 



Now the death-rate in a community from 

 typhoid fever may be taken as an index of the 

 general sanitary conditions prevailing in such a 

 community, the character of the public water- 

 supply, not without justification, being regarded 

 as a prime factor in its determination. One of 

 the most significant points in the sanitary history 

 of the State of Massachusetts is the almost 

 uniform decline in the mortality from typhoid 

 fever in proportion as measures have been taken 

 to introduce better water-supplies and to improve 

 those which already exist. Thus in the twenty 

 years, from 1856 to 1876, the death-rate from 

 this disease was 8*6 per 10,000 of population, 

 whilst in the period from 1876 to 1895 it had 

 fallen to 4-1 per 10,000, the improvement in 



