CXX1V 
The cases in which this disease has been spread by wells found to be 
in communication with cesspools are very numerous. 
Unfortunately, neither the microscopist, the physiologist, nor the 
chemist can give a definite answer as to the freedom from disease germs 
of any water, or, save outside rather wide limits, pronounce an opinion 
as to its probable unwholesomeness, the difficulty in the latter case being 
much greater if no history of the supply and its surroundings, and no 
knowledge of the general character of the waters of the surrounding 
district, be available. 
The safest plan is to consider no water to be fit for human consump- 
tion into which sewage has entered, or can at any time enter; and 
the best test of safety to carefully trace the supply to its source and 
ascertain that no objectionable impurity gains access to it in its course. 
Water mixed with sewage may be, and has been, usde fora long 
time with apparent impunity ; but the greater the pollution the greater 
is the liability to receive sooner or later the germs of typhoid and other 
diseases, the nitrogenous matter furnishing material for their multi: 
plication, and possibly also, by lowering the general health, preparing 
the way for their attack. 
The slightest admixture of these germs with the purest water having 
been conclusively shown to be most dangerous, itis manifestly of the 
highest impertance that the supply of towns should be preserved 
from risk of contamination by the prohibition asfar as possible of all 
settlement on the gathering grounds, while that precaution, as in this 
colony, remains a comparatively easy matter. This matter has received 
much attention in Victoria with very beneficial results. 
An originally pure supply may be fouled in the mains by leakage 
through defective joints when the water is turned off, or the pressure 
is insufficient to reach the higher ground. The partial vacuum 
produced in the empty pipes by continued drawing in the lower parts 
of the distric, would greatly facilitate the entrance of surface water. 
The necessity for the utmost care in thoroughly disinfecting all 
discharges, etc., from a typhoid patient cannot be too frequently 
insisted on, and full directions as to the best means to be employed are 
given in the ‘‘ Rules” issued by the Government ; this precaution should 
be continued for two or three months, as it is stated that a patient is 
capable of communicating the disease during that period of convales- 
cence. The burial of excreta recommended should be carried out as 
far as possible from wells, 
Other germ diseases, notably cholera, may be spread through the 
medium of water; and, even in the absence of specific germs, an 
undue proportion of organic, filth is injurious to health, and conse- 
quently predisposing to disease. 
The typhoid germ finds in excreta a most suitable seed bed for its 
propagation, and in the words of Parkes :— 
““The occurrence of typhoid fever points unequivocally to defective 
removal of excreta, and it is a disease altogether and easily preventible;” 
in other words, it is like diphtheria, a “ filth ” disease. 
Tyndall says, on the general question of germ diseases :— 
“‘The physician and the sanitarian have no longer to fight against 
phantoms, requiring only the fortuitous concourse of atoms to bring 
them into existence. Their enemy is revealed, and their business is to 
thwart him, to intercept him, and to slay him; it is not noxious 
gases, but organised germs, which, sown in the body, and multiplying 
there indefinitely at the bady’s expense, produce the most terrible 
diseases by which humanity has been scourged. Contagia are living 
things. Men and women have died by the million that bacteria 
and bacilli might live. These virulent organisms, these ferments of 
disease hang about the walls, the furniture, and the clothing of the sick 
