302 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



foods are found, they are destroyed at once. Every 

 state and nation employs expert food inspectors to 

 examine all imports and exports. In 1899 our gov- 

 ernment inspected 53,087,994 slaughtered animals, of 

 which number 159,5 19 were condemned and their sale 

 prohibited. The inspection of meats and other slaugh- 

 terhouse products is the most important work pertain- 

 ing to foods that our government attempts. Usually 

 the states deal with the question of adulterations and 

 substitutions of foods, and the federal government and 

 local authorities pay little attention to it. Massachu- 

 setts spends about $10,000 annually on the question 

 of adulteration of foods, and doubtless this amount is 

 saved many times over to the people of the state. 



Pure, wholesome, unadulterated foods are matters 

 of such importance to the health and well-being of any 

 people that the governments are maintaining inspection 

 and experiment stations at great expense. The inspec- 

 tion laws should be strictly enforced in the rural dis- 

 tricts and the small towns and villages, as well as in the 

 large cities. 



213. Water Supply. To supply a large city with an 

 abundance of pure wholesome water for drinking pur- 

 poses is often no easy task, and yet no one thing is 

 more essential to public health. The chief sources of 

 the water supplies are ponds and lakes, storage reser- 

 voirs, rivers and streams, and deep wells. The many 

 shallow wells still in use even in our large cities are the 

 cause every year of hundreds of cases of typhoid fever 

 and other " water-borne " diseases. Sometimes cities 



