Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-01-04

London Globe.
The Oriental does not see that there
is any connection between cleanliness
and either comfort or health. He does
believe in its connection with godliness,
ablution being regular part of his
worship, but he sees no objection to use
ing the same tank for his ceremonial
bath and for his drinking water. The
indifference which exists TO polluted
wells is indeed amazing, or would be
but for the fact that we have not long
learned to recognize their danger even
in England. This indifference is not
confined TO the poor. DIR. NJ. G. Furnell,
speaking of Madras, observes that
most natives, even of the highest caste,
have no objection to use both for domes-
tic and drinking purposes water which
may be described as simply filthy The
doctor noticed people washing their
clothes and themselves in tanks from
which the women were taking home
water for cooking and drinking. The
only desideratum is that the water shall
be soft. In some places in this Presi-
dency it has been found useful 10 set
apart by municipal authority certain
tanks for washing, and others for the
supply of drinking water, but the regu-
latiOn can only be carried out by APP
pointing watchmen TO enforce it. Salts
factory progress has been made in inn
proving the water supply of the great
cities, and it would seem that as regards
some of these there is not now very
much to complain of. A curious and
instructive instance of the danger in
Cured by English soldiers from drink
ing impure water is afforded by an in
cident reported from Kamptee. A de-
tachment of the I'd Battalion of the 18th
Regiment stationed there suffered from
an outbreak of enteric fever. IL was
speedily noticed that nearly all the
patients were teetotlars. Whence arose
this extraordinary susceptibility of alb
stainers to disease ? 1t turned out that
the teetotal soldiers had n recreation
room of their own, where they drank
tea. coffee, areated waters, and what
was supposed to be pure water. On ex-
animation, however, it was found that
| the latter fluid was drawn from well
close at hand, which had been polluted
by percolation from neighboring drains
The other men had not drank from this
well. and nearly all escaped the cpl
demic.
The Government of India regard in
struction in the elements of sanitary
science rs an important branch of popu-
lar education, and for some years a San
| itary Printer, in the different vernacular
languages, has been in use in the
| schools. In the year reported on this
publication was circulated in Bengal to
the extent Of $4,000 copies. A transla-
| ton into Assamese is in the press, and
an edition of II, 900 copies is being issued
in British Burmudah. AS many as
| 100, 900 copies of the manuel have been
| issued since lis first publication, and il
has been translated into fourteen YER
nacular languages. One great difficulty
in inducing the people of India, whether
in towns or villages, TO practice cleanli-
ness in. their houses and surroundings is
| that they have not learned the value of
refuse and sewage as manure. Only
| in one place-a small village called
| Lohi, in Berar, of some 800 inhabi-
| tants- have the people adopted this
practice. They seem TO have done 80
without external pressure or advice.
The report of the operations of these
native sanitary pioneers says: There
are no cesspits. The water from the
bathing that flows on to small plot
planted with chamkwia Ga species of
caladium), the leaves of which are used
as vegetable. These plants are to be
seen growing in nearly every courtyard,
and in some also noticed the papola
and plantain in those places where
otherwise a cesspool would have been.
All noxious accumulations are thus util-
lied in the soil, to the general health of
the community