118 
EIGHTH REPORT. 
as they exist in Michigan today, furnish the best drinking waters, 
whether we look at the matter from a chemical or a bacteriological stand¬ 
point. Many of the smaller cities in Michigan are furnished with water 
from superficial springs. So long as the filter beds of these springs are 
kept from contamination these waters will remain good, but as soon as 
these filter beds are covered by privy vaults and cesspools these 
waters will no longer be safe. Many of these small cities are growing 
rapidly, and what they need to keep their water supplies wholesome 
is properly constructed sewers and compulsory house connections with 
these sewers. Nature has given to many localities in this State natural 
filter beds, which, if they had to be built artificially, would cost for 
each locality tens of thousands of dollars, and stupidly many localities 
are polluting these natural filter beds, increasing their death rate and 
rendering it absolutely necessary to go to a more remote water supply 
which will not be so safe as their original supply before it was polluted. 
There are probably but few cities of 20,000 or less inhabitants, in the 
State, that could not secure an abundant supply of wholesome water 
near-by if the pollution of the soil was prohibited. There is some ex¬ 
cuse for the pollution of our streams because sewage and the waste 
from factories must be disposed of, but there is absolutely no excuse 
for the pollution of the soil about our dwellings. Whenever man builds 
for himself a habitation and pollutes the soil about him there, typhoid 
fever will sooner or later visit him. There is on this round earth no 
localty so salubrious that man may not contaminate it and make it un¬ 
fit for his dwelling. 
University of Michigan. 
