Water 59 



these diseases would no longer prevail. Water is the means of 

 carrying away this waste to places where it will become purified. 

 The problem of proper sewage disposal is a most important one 

 in both city and country districts. 



Methods in Rural Districts. In rural sections, until recent 

 times, sewage from the farm house was piped a few feet from 

 the house into a small walled place called a cesspool, or it was 

 left exposed in a box-like receptacle in a small outhouse. In the 

 case of the cesspool, which was usually not watertight, the liquid 

 from the sewage soaked into the surrounding soil and polluted 

 it, and this liquid, flowing through the ground, was liable to find 

 its way into any near-by well. In the case of the outhouse, flies 

 were constantly walking over the wastes and carrying small por- 

 tions on their feet to any food that might happen to be unpro- 

 tected near or in the house. In either case, it might happen that 

 germs from the excreta of a person suffering with a communicable 

 disease, such as typhoid fever, might be carried into the house, 

 either by water or by flies, thus exposing healthy persons to the 

 disease. Sometimes whole families became ill on account of these 

 improper methods of waste disposal. 



The Septic Tank. Fortunately these poor methods of sew- 

 age disposal are being replaced 

 to a greater or lesser extent by 

 the use of the septic tank. This 

 consists or an underground 

 cement tank, usually having two 

 or three sections, located 25 to THE SEPTIC TANK 



30 feet from the house. Into A *uardian of health, 



it, wastes are conveyed from the house by water in pipes. 



The more solid part of the sewage settles in the first section 

 and is attacked by certain bacteria, or tiny forms of life, which 

 feed on it, and cause it to decay and dissolve. This solution then 

 passes through an opening into the second section where the work 

 of the bacteria continues. This section serves as a storage place 

 until the solution becomes quite clear and has lost most of its 

 solid matter, when it passes into the third section, from which the 

 liquid finally passes into the ground, where soil bacteria render the 



