So THE FARM WATER SUPPLY 



The question may be asked, What is the specific effect on the 

 human system of these substances which occur in drinking 

 water? It is the opinion of several physicians interrogated, that 

 many cases of general debility and of bowel troubles may be 

 ascribed to water polluted by sewage. The latter complaints 

 are especially apt to occur in individuals who are newly sub- 

 jected to such water, after being accustomed to good soft water. 

 This fact makes especially emphatic the necessity of pure water 

 on farms that accommodate summer visitors from the cities. 



The greatest danger in the use of sewage polluted water, is 

 the possible presence of the bacteria which cause typhoid 

 fever. These germs of disease cannot exist for any length 

 of time in our good spring waters, because there is too 

 little matter for them to feed on ; but polluted waters furnish 

 the necessary conditions for their maintenance in the products 

 of decomposing organic matter, and they may live in such 

 water several weeks, ready to poison some person obliged to 

 drink it. 



Of course, all waters showing high proportions of chlorine 

 and ammonia do not contain disease germs; but the figures are 

 dancfer-sig^nals not to be disregarded. 



It is commonly assumed that the soil acts as a filter on water 

 and remov^esall dangerous matter as the water passes through it, 

 but repeated trials by sanitary experts have shown that neither 

 earth nor any other common filtering material will remove 

 disease germs from water unless there is a thorough destruction 

 of the soluble organic matter, thus depriving them of food. 



To make more emphatic the dangerous character of typhoid- 

 fever germs, a few facts are given from the Report of the Mas- 

 sachusetts State Board of Health for 1892, and from Mason's 

 Water Supply. 



Typhoid fever is produced by a bacillus that is invariably 

 found in the feces of victims of the disease. This bacillus 

 has been found to live three weeks in river water, three months 

 in the stools of a typhoid patient, over three months in ice, and 

 five and one half months in soil. Sunlight will kill the germs ; 

 but the sun's rays do not penetrate the earth nor into the 

 recesses of privy-vaults and cess-pools. 



