Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-06-27
FAMILY WATER SUPPLY.

ing health and vigor to all the tissues, while
impure water is one of the most fruitful
sources of sickness, suffering and death,
shortening the average duration of human
life by many years. A pure and abun-
dant water supply is therefore an object OF
the first importance to every family in the
city or country. 7: -
The sources of supply are numerous.
Many families depend upon rain water
stored in cisterns or other reservoirs. I'm
der favorable conditions this Is pure and
wholesome. 1t is, however, liable to alb
sorb dust, smoke and other impurities in
its passage through the atmosphere, es-
pecially over smoky cities, and in case Of
the first shower after drought. When
falling on the wooden roofs of houses the
first rain washes off the dust and weather
beat of the shingles, and should be filtered
before it enters the cistern. Better still,
an automatic arrangement may be used
which will collect the first rainfall in some
shallow receptacle, and when this is filled,
will turn the pure stream into the clstern.
If then the cistern Is divided into two
equal parts by a'partition Of brick laid in
cement, so arranged that the water which
enters upon one side of the partition is
made to filter through the wall of brick
before being drawn off on the other side,
the water may be relied upon as sufficient
ly clean and pure for ordinary uses.
Most country people depend upon the
ground water of springs and shallow wells
for their supply. This is liable in its pas
sage through the earth to absorb various
mineral substances, the most common and
troublesome Of which are the salts of lime lime
and nagnesia, which constitute hard
for Thic rooi1iroc tho I1ca a 1orOo1v
increased amount of soap in washing, and
is therefore much less economical than soft
water. In Glasgow it is estimated that
the introduction of soft water in place of
hard has diminished the consumption Of
soap at least one-half. Hard water also
produces in many persons arrangement OF
digestion, chronic diarrhGa, gravel and
other inorganic deposits. One way in
which the hardness of water may be les
sened is by boiling it. Another method,
paradoxical as it may seem, consists in
adding lime, usually in the form Of lime
water or milk of lime. Both these meth
ods result in breaking up the chemical
combinations and precipitating the min
eral substances, which should then be
removed by filtration.
In cities and large towns, the usual
source of supply is the surface water of
rivers and lakes. This is stored in artifi-
cial reservoirs, and distributed through
pipes of lead or iron. Where lead pipes
are used, either in bringing from reservoirs
or springs, or in pumping it from wells
into houses, the lead is gradually dissolv-
ed, and poisonous compound formed,
which when drank for sufficient length
of time is liable to produce unpleasant and
even dangerous results. According to
Professor Mayr, water containing one part
of lead in one million parts of water is
sufficient to produce lead collie, wristdrop
and other symptoms of acute lead poison
ing, while a much less quantity may cause
irritation of the digestive organs and of
muscular control. These effects may be
produced in one member of the family
only, while all are using the water, and
the others escape, owing to less degree Of
susceptibility. The path of safety in this
matter lies in avoiding the use of lead
pipes as far as possible and in never using
water for drinking or cooking, which has
stood in lead pipe for any length of time,
but always taking. the precaution first to
to completely empty the pipes.
All surface waters are liable to contaml-
nation from decaying organic matter, such
fragments of rotten fruit and vegetables,
dead worms, insects and other small ami
mails, garbage and animal excrement.
Not only this, but in all old and thickly
settled Ountries-Wherever civilization
has massed large numbers of human be-
ings-both surface water and ground wa
ter are liable to the still more serious con-
tamination of foul drainage, such as the
teachings of farm yards, cess pools, sink
drains, privy vaults, old graveyards and
the sewerage of cities.
DR.. I. A. Watson, in New Hampshire
board of health report, has given vivid
picture of the fouling of rural well from
these sources, as follows: "Clustered on a
few square rods of land are the farm build
ings, the dwellings, wood shed, wash house,
horse stable, cow barn, sheep yard, corn
house, swine house, hen house, compost
heap, cess pool and privy. All these are
arranged in hollow square, and in their
midst is the farmers we'll, with its curb,
sweep and bucket or its cover, pipe and
pump. Around this center are concen-
trated all the activities of New England
farm. Birth, life and death bloom, fruit
and decay, of men and animals, of shrubs
and trees, have transpired here for a CEN
tury. All the waste has been dropped
upon the surface, there to accumulate, de-
cay and putrefy. The earth beneath has
become surcharged with animal and vege-
table waste. The whole establishment is
resting upon and above a mass of the
most dangerous filth, and this filth is
being daily leached into the bottom of the
well.'
In water thus abounding in organic i'm
purities are found vast multitudes of ami
malcula, which when taken into the
human system, develop into such fright
full parasites as tape worms, trinchin@ and
hydatids. Still more to be dreaded are
the myriads of microscopic bactereia, or
germs of disease, which breed and thrive
in filth, and literally swarm in impure
water. These are the source of such dead
ly pests as sdiphtheria, typhoid and malarial
fevers and Asiatic cholera. The impor-
tance of some method of preventing these
dire results can hardly be overestimated.
Few persons have any adequate concep-
tion of the extent to which pollution in
water exists. Even in wells, it is said
by competent observers that the water in
ninety-tive out of every hundred is insan-
itary and unfit for use. In the water OF
cities the evils are even greater.-J. NJ.
French, IM d., in Good Housekeeping. a,
THE MOTHERS LOST HOUR.
There is a lost hour among home keep
ing women, an hour which is lost in the
way certain arts are-so lost, indeed, that
there seems to be very little likelihood
that it will ever be found. This is the
"hour to herself" for which every moth
er of a family longs, and too often, longs
in vain. She used to know what it was to
have little time entirely her own, now
and then, in the days of her girlhood; but
q rnatronjs dutinS have absorbed her life