FOOD AND DRINK 103 



ground. The ordinary supply of cities is from some pure 

 stream or pond, conveyed from a distance through pipes, the 

 limpid fluid containing generally only a small amount of im- 

 purity. Croton water, the supply of New York City, is very 

 pure, and contains only four and a half grains to a gallon ; the 

 Eidgewood water, of Brooklyn, holds even less foreign matter. 



32. Drinking-water may contain as large a proportion as 

 sixty to seventy grains per gallon of impurity, -but a much 

 larger .quantity renders it unwholesome. The mineral spring 

 waters, used popularly as medicines, are highly charged with 

 mineral substances. Some of them, such as the waters at 

 Saratoga, contain three hundred grains and more to the gallon. 

 (Bead Note 11.) 



33. Action of Water upon Lead. The danger of using water 

 that has been in contact with certain metals is well known. 



11. Impure Water Spreads Disease. "In the year 1867, three 

 millions of pilgrims, of whom a handful had come from a cholera dis-, 

 trict, assembled at Hurdwar, a few miles from the spot where the Ganges 

 escapes from the Himalayas. On the 12th of April the three millions 

 resolved to bathe and drink. ' The bathing-place of the pilgrims was a 

 space 650 feet long by 30 feet wide, shut off from the rest of the Ganges 

 by rails. Into this long and narrow inclosure pilgrims from all parts 

 of the encampment crowded as closely as possible from early morn to 

 sunset ; the water within this space, during the whole time, was thick 

 and dirty partly from the ashes of the dead, brought by surviving 

 relatives to be deposited in the water of their river god, and partly from 

 the washing of the clothes and bodies of the bathers. Now, pilgrims at 

 the bathing ghaut, after entering the stream, dip themselves under the 

 water three times or more, and then drink of the holy water, whilst 

 saying their prayer. The drinking of the water is never omitted ; and 

 when two or more members of a family bathe together, each from his 

 own hand gives to the other water to drink. On the evening of the next 

 day, the 13th of April, eight cases of cholera were admitted into one of 

 the hospitals at Hurdwar. By the 15th, the whole of this vast concourse 

 of pilgrims had dispersed,' carrying the cholera in every direction over 

 India ; it attacked the British troops along the various routes, it passed 

 the northern frontier, got into Persia, and so on into Europe, where it 

 will work its wicked will for some time to come. That is a sample of 

 the mischief water can do in the way of spreading disease." London 

 Medical Press. 



82. Impurities in drinking-water ? Mineral springs ? 



83. What is stated of the action of water upon lead ? 



