Cottaye Sanitation. 64‘5 
distance and place it where the liquids draining from it cannot 
be injurious. 
Especial cai’e must be taken not to allow the liquids from 
any of these middens, pigstys, or cowhouses to flow into a water- 
course or pond, as they so often do. 
III. The Water Sutply. 
This may be from one of four sources. Water is either 
(1) supplied by the authorities, being laid on in pipes, (2) is 
taken from surface water such as a pond, ditch, or watercourse, 
(3) from a well, or (4) from a rain-water cistern. 
(1) “ Town water.” — As to this source there is nothing to 
be said here. It is to be presumed that the sanitary authority 
will take care that the water is pm-e and the supply constant, so 
that there is no need for storing it. 
(2) Surface water. — Very many cottages in the country are 
supplied by surface water. This may be very good, as when it 
comes from uncultivated grasslands or moors or rocky land ; but, 
on the other hand, it may be, and often is, very bad, draining from 
land which is heavily manured or liable to contamination from 
neighbouring dwellings or farm buildings. For this latter form 
of surface water a better supply must always be substituted. 
(3) Well water may be amongst the best or the worst of 
water supplies. 
Shallow wells, in the subsoil, are liable to all the impm’ities 
of surface waters. The waters come actually from the same 
sources, and are only partly filtered by passing through a few 
feet of porous soil. This apparent purification perhaps onlv 
renders them more dangerous, as it produces a feeling of false 
security in their use. 
It is a not uncommon occurrence to find such a well in the 
middle of a farmyard or within a few feet of some midden or cess- 
pool, from which the liquid contents can enter at will (see fig. II). 
The same objections apply to shallow wells as to surface 
waters. If they are in a pastoral country and with no source 
of contamination in their vicinity, they may yield excellent 
drinking water. In other cases they should be closed and a 
better supply sought out. 
Beei! wells . — One of the safest of sources of supply for an 
isolated house is a deep well, especially one which draws water 
filtered through a good thickness of solid rock from permanent 
springs, but even this is liable to contamination. 
As shown in fig. 12 on page 647, it is often found that the deep- 
well water is mixed with impurities which soak into it from the 
