224 
Village Sanitary Economy. 
several influences ; but it is probably owing, first to the difficulty 
of getting water in suflicient quantity, and next to the existence 
ot pure air surrounding villages, which naturally maintains a. 
cleanliness superior to that attainable amidst the smoke and gas 
Avhich pervades the atmosphere of towns. The quantity of water 
used in towns, where there exists the advantage of a public supply,, 
varies very considerably, according to the special trade of the 
town and the extent to which water is used lor public purposes, 
such as road-watering, street-fountains, and as a reserve in case of 
fire, &c. The maximum quantity will probably somewhat 
exceed 50 gallons per person per diem (example, Lynn, in 
Norfolk), while the minimum will hardly reach 10 gallons 
(example, Stroud, in Gloucestershire). In the east of London 
the charge is 205. a year for a house containing six rooms and a 
wash-house, and the East London Waterworks Company endea- 
vours to supply to every house of this description, containing on 
an average seven persons, one pint per minute throughout the 
day, or 180 gallons per diem. 
Of course there are many exceptions to the scarcity stated to 
exist in villages ; but where there exists no lack of quantity, it 
frequently happens that the quality of water is very inferior, 
which is a worse evil. Where private and public pumps exist to 
raise water from a comparatively shallow subterranean supply 
beneath the village, the water, though possibly clear to the 
eye, is frequently more or less tainted with the escape of 
excrementitious matter from the cesspools, privies, or house 
sewers, or by the soakage of refuse liquid from the surface ; and 
when, in default of well-water, the required supply is obtained 
during summer and autumn from ponds or water-courses in the 
neighbourhood, the quality of the water is disgusting both to 
taste and sight, as the ponds and ditches resorted to receive the 
surface-water discharged from manured fields, the washings of 
roads upon which all kinds of filth are thrown, and the escaped 
sewage from farmyards whenever heavy rains fall. 
Taking into consideration all the circumstances — personal and. 
physical — attending village communities, it has been considered 
that a daily supply of 10 gallons per head is the least quantity 
that should be provided for them wherever a public supply is 
established, and that every cottage with three bedrooms should 
have the command of 50 gallons a day, or 350 gallons a week. 
For this quantity, without labour on the part of the recipient of 
fetching and drawing, but which would be obtainable by simply 
turning a tap or raising a pump-handle, it is considered that the 
labouring cottager can, under any circumstances, afford to pay 2d. 
a week, or 8s. %d. a year, and that other residents in villages 
should pay in proportion to the rateable value of their dwell- 
