Village Sanitar'j Ecuiwmij. 
225 
injTS. Under any circuinstanccs, all authorities concur in the 
opinion that whatever may be the quantity supplied, or the charjje 
lor supplying it, the quality should be unexceptionable. To 
secure this very important point it appears desirable that standards 
of (juality should be established under the authority of Govern- 
ment, which may be applied to the various sources of supj)ly, and 
which should serve as a test for all water used for domestic pur- 
poses, even though it be obtained by private means. 
Water Supplt/ from Private Sources. 
Doubtless the provision which would be most acceptable to all 
rate-paying communities is that obtainable from private sources 
Avithin the limits of each occupation, assuming the quality to be 
the same and the cost of obtaining it — putting a money-value 
upon the labour involved — no more than would be payable for a 
public supply. It Is only necessary to say a i'cw words on this 
part of the subject. 
The sources of a private character which would be comparable 
with a public supply are : — 
I. Wells sunk down to a shallow depth, affording a constant 
supply of water to be raised by a common lllt-pumj). 
II. A running stream of unpolluted water passing the doors 
of the inhabitants, from which they can dip out all 
they require. 
111. The storage of roof-water. 
I. From Wells. — As a positive condition upon the use of water 
from shallow wells in villages, no privies or cesspools nor leaky 
sewers should exist within such a distance of the wells as will 
allow of the Infiltration of excrementitlous matter. A proper 
system of impermeable sewerage for house-refuse and of perme- 
able drainage for subsoil-water will be found indispensable where 
this mode of supply is used. 
II. Bi/ Dip from a Public Watercourse. — Where dependence 
is placed on a supply to be obtained by dipping from a stream 
running through a village, the strictest care is necessary to pre- 
vent surface-defilement, and to see that steps are taken to lower 
the water standing in the soil, so as to prevent that complete 
saturation which is incident to the constant flow of water on the 
surface, — too frequently resulting in evils as great as those arising 
from the want of sewerage itself. 
III. The Storage of Roof-water. — It is, perhaps, only by one or 
other of the two private sources already referred to that the whole of 
the water required for domestic use by villagers can be obtained 
with sufficient certainty. Much, however, can be done by house 
and cottage owners by the provision of tnnks, In which to collect 
VOL. VI. — f?. S. Q 
