Village Sanitary Economy. 
223 
condition of the ground at the back-doors and surrounding the 
cottage. Upon this ground is thrown the urine from the chamber, 
the foul water in which the ch)thes are washed, and the refuse of 
the scullery, which either sinks through the soil to the well, if 
there be one, to be drunk by the cottager and his family, or rises 
by evaporation in the air to be breathed by them. To avoid this, 
it is probable that no money could be better spent than in properly 
paving and draining the backyard and garden of the cottage. 
Second: Watek Supply. 
If by the space furnished, and the mode of ventilation adopted, 
within the cottage a constant supply of pure air is obtained for 
its inmates, the next object to be secured is a copious supply of 
pure water, for without it cleanliness is impossible and continued 
good health very doubtful. At present the majority of villages 
suffer from either scarcity or impurity of water, or from both. 
Too long has the country been deluded by the fallacy that good 
water, and plenty of it, is the special quality of country districts. 
It is true that we do not find in our towns the running stream or 
rippling brook which form a striking element in country scenery, 
and which the writer was once reminded by the late Lord Pal- 
merston is a feature as important in the landscape as the eye in 
the human countenance (which his Lordship characteristically 
observed " should be moving and sparkling ") ; but it is never- 
theless equally the fact that many villages with small and poor 
communities suffer even more than cities and large populations 
from the want of pure water, though they have not the same 
power to make their wants known. Seeing as we do from the 
windows of railway carriages the many streams crossed in an hour's 
journey, we are apt to believe that every cottager in the country 
has only to step outside his door to obtain the best of water, when 
the real truth is, that while the wealthy residents of our towns are 
paying after the rate of between 1*. and 2s. per 1000 gallons for 
water delivered to every floor in their mansions, it is not an un- 
common circumstance for the poor of a village to pay as much as 
a penny for a single pailful of two gallons, or after the rate of 
21. Is. 8rf. per 1000 gallons when carted or carried to their door ! 
Though this price is doubtless exceptional, the fact stated will be 
confirmed by many occupiers of land who have employed horses 
and labourers for several months in successive years to cart water 
to their own houses and those of their villajre neighbours, as well 
as to their stock. 
Of all classes of the community, agricultural labourers are the 
least given to personal ablution and house-cleansing ; the quantity 
of water, therefore, used in cottages is less than that required in 
the lowest class of urban dwellings. This has been attributed to 
