6S HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



less of that " impalpable dust," the taste of which we all 

 know, because we have all been compelled to breathe it 

 more or less, there is less of this prevailing lung-irritant 

 in Florida than in any other country we know of. 



So we see that our bonnie Florida has cause to bless the 

 sands that lie so thickly scattered over her bosom ; to their 

 ' sanitary work she owes no small part of her superlative 

 healthfulness. 



Quite as important as any other point in the selection of 

 a home that will be a healthy one is that of the water-sup- 

 ply. For water, good, bad, or indifferent, must be had. 

 It is one of the things that a family must have, no matter 

 what else they have not. Water and air — we can no more 

 dispense with the one than with the other. That Florida 

 has an abundance of the latter, pure and wholesome, we 

 have already seen. Now, how about the water ? This too 

 must be pure and sweet, for there is no source more fruitful 

 of disease than bad water. Says an eminent physician, * ' Did 

 people know the nature and extent of the terrible impuri- 

 ties in the water they drink they would wonder that they 

 are still alive." 



Medical men every where assert that the vast majority 

 of diseases are directly traceable to the results of some 

 sporadic germ, unseen, unsuspected, unknown, but none 

 the less surely existing, and by some means, either of air 

 or water, drawn into the human system, and of these two 

 means of conveyance the most powerful factor is the water 

 we drink. 



No one who has arrived at the age of maturity needs a 

 physician to tell him that water which contains vegetable 

 organic matter or minerals, like salts or lime for example, 

 will cause dysentery or diarrhea. » 



But while this fact is generally known, there is another 

 equally true, but so recently proven as not yet to be uni- 



