The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-11-09
Pure Drinking Water.

The problem Of supplying drinking
water in thickly settled districts is
becoming a very grave one, and it is
worth while to give it the most serious
consideration.
1t is a fact well known by sanitary
experts, that after long periods of dry
weather, succeeded by very heavy
rains, the death rate increases with
surprising rapidity. Fevers and other
germdiseases multiply until an epi
| demic is threatened.
The great mistake people make on
the water question is in supposing
that water that looks, tastes and smells
perfectly clean is necessarily all right.
When we take into consideration that
the germs of the most deadly diseases
are discoverable only with the aid Of
the most powerful microscope, we
may readily understand how few
millions of them, more or less, may
be taken into tie system without our
knowledge. Once settled in their com.
Portable environment, they grow and
flourish until the mischief is too far
advanced to be counteracted. Every
family should have a good filter and
that filter should be renewed as often
as once in two or four weeks, accord
ing to the condition Of the water. Very
few people realize what deadly thing
an impure filter is. Instead of removing
the cause, it simply amounts to care
fully swept and garnished residence
for myriads of disease germs of various
kinds. They flourish undisturbed in
the altering medium, building their
homes on the grains of sand that are
to them very much what the Palisades
would be to us-remo,e and unoccu.
pied territory, with encouragement
tor increasing and multiplying to an
unlimited extent.
The sand and charcoal filter is very
| good as far as it goes, but needs con-
slant renewing And this is, to many
people, so much trouble that they
complacently swallow bacteria and
bacilli by the hundred thousands.
Physicians agree that the only safe
water to drink is that which is boiled.
The boiling should be thoroughly done
in clean vessel, and then may be
set aside to cool. If it can then be
filtered through a glass funnel, with
blotting-paper or fine cotton or linen
as filtering material, it will be at its
best, under the circumstances, or the
ordinary filter, frequently renewed,
may be used. Water which is boiled,
if held up to the light, may be seen to
contain floating particles. These are
easily removed by an ordinary blotting-
paper filter, and if this is done in clear,
cool air, the process of aeration will
be quite tolerably performed. The
water should then be bottled and put
into the ice box until cool enough to
use.
1t is not good plan, under any
circumstances, to put ice into water.
Ice, especially that gathered in thickly
populated districts, is said to be the
essence of all impurity, and it is not
at all unlikely that the distress and
illness attributed to ice water is caused
not so much by the cold as by the
presence of countless germs that at
tack the system.
1t is important that every person
drink at least several pints of water a
day, and it is easy to imagine, if the
water is impure, the amount of poison
that one may take within twenty four
hours. Water probably receives as
little attention as anything about the
house. Pure water is one of the first
necessities for health, and one which
no householder should for a moment
think of holding as a secondary con-
sideration. .-New York Ledqer.