SANITARY SCIENCE IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 
249 
drain from well wooded districts, but a much greater quantity con- 
denses either as rain or dew. Meadow land is as healthy as any, 
and secures a greater circulation through the soil ; that is, a more 
favourable condition, if the subsoil be drained, for growth. 
The very properties which make gravel a dry subsoil when 
drained render it a capacious reservoir when undrained. It is 
obvious, without quoting detailed proof, that the nearer this sub- 
soil water is to the surface the more injurious it is to plant and 
animal life. Dr. Buchanan first pointed out the injurious effects 
of subsoil water on health in these words : " That the drying of 
the soil which has in most cases accompanied the laying of main 
sewers in the improved towns has led to the diminution more or 
less of phthisis." We cannot object to these cases being for 
towns, and thus inapplicable to rural districts, for the same con- 
ditions hold in both with respect to subsoil drainage. It must 
be remembered, however, that, although the causes may be the 
same in town and country, the results, as shown by fevers, &c., 
may be different. 
The fact of consumption in many rural districts of wide extent 
being local and common is well known, and points suspiciously to 
the defective natural drainage of the district. 
Drainage, like charity, ought always to begin at home, and 
very few homes can dispense with this draining. A dry rubble, 
rough -built drain carried round the outside of a house, just 
beyond the foundations, will be found to protect buildings from 
damp most effectively. Such a drain can be laid in on building 
the foundations, care being taken to provide a proper outlet. 
Houses on hillsides require this draining as much as those on 
level ground. 
We will now consider briefly the question of water supply to 
rural districts. These are on the whole in a worse position than 
towns. Wells or streams supplying 200, 300, and 500 gallons per 
day are the exception, and not the rule. If investigated, the 
effective rural supply — that is, the quantity available from existing 
sources without upsetting present arrangements — would be found 
to be very low indeed. Nor is this deficiency so easily supplied to 
rural districts as to towns ; for each house or each few necessitate 
an independent source of supply. 
Everywhere there is a tendency to centralize. A house has a 
greater chance of being built beside another than by itself. While 
