The times., 1898-09-16
Pure water.

Aside from its application to the
War Department the condition of the
troops now returning from camp ought
to be an object lesson to the Ameri-
can people on the value of pure water.
There is nothing in the world more i'm
portant to health than pure water, un-
less it is pure air, and good air and
water are things about which most
persons are lamentably careless. The
'Newness' of the last generation wax
ed up the country to some extent on
this matter, but it's influence, though
far-reachiag, worked slowly, and was
hindered by the extremes to which
some of the apostles of the Brook
Farm community carried their ideas.
The "Newness" was the effect of reac-
ton from the mode of life prevalent
through centuries of European and
American civilization. During the last
century bathing was a practice COM
paratively rare, and people shut the
windows of their bedrooms tight every
evening, and sometimes they opened
not. When, therefore, the preach
ers of the "Newness' declared
that every man, woman and child
ought to sleep with the win
dow of the bedroom open, and that
the room should be thoroughly aired
in the morning, there was combined
groan and shudder from all the old
fashioned people, and predictions of
pneumonia, influenza, chills, and sud-
den death. from the old-fashioned doc
nevertheless, and now no doctor would
risk his professional reputation by
limiting that they should be shut.
Although there has been a movement
in the direction of pure air, the ques-
ton of pure water has received less
attention. The best water that can be
had without filtering or other prepara-
ton is probably the water of mountain
springs, where the sand and rocks act
as a natural filter, and there is no
chance for impurities to be thrown in
to the spring, as in the case of rivers
One of the things which hinder
proper attention to the water question
is that in many places where the
water is slightly impure the inhabi-
tants become accustomed TO ii and are
not troubled by the impurities, while
a stranger who is imprudent enough TO
drink freely of the water of the coun-
try. pays for his indscretion with a
week or ten days of Illness In spite
of this. the stranger being but one and
the inhabitants many, the water is con-
sidered good, and the people of the
neighborhood, when they have diseases
Of various kinds, akin to typhoid ma
laria. never think that the water may
possibly have something to do with it.
1t should also be borne in mind that
water which may not hurt a person
living out Of doors and engaged in
manual labor will be death to the in
habitants of city, without the pure
air, and exercise of the farmer or lum-
herman. The cities are, as a rule more
careful about water supply and sani-
tary regulations in general than are
the small towns, precisely because the
consequences of any carelessness are
so much more serious But if there is
any one thing which needs close at
tention from American mayors, alder
men and selectmen, it is the water
supply. Short-sightedness in this re-
spect costs the town in the end much
more than 1t would cost to have every
drop of drinking water filtered. When
an epidemic of diphtheria or typhoid
begins its work in a town it is no re-
specter of persons. The houses of the
poor should be supplied with water as
carefully as the houses of the rich, and
the town should, for its own safety,
gladly pay the bills.