Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-05-30
wafer.

The necessity of an ample supply OF
wholesome water is acknowledged by all.
Water is as necessary to the sustenance of
life as the air we breathe, or the food we
consume Our very bodies are composed
to great extent of water. Water is the
great agent used to carry on the functions
of the vital organs; as this forms so large a
part of animal life, it will be seen that it
is very important that this vital fluid shall
be pure acdter Water not contaminated by
anything deleterious to health.
How is pure water to be obtained? This
has always been an important. question and
never more so than at the present day.
when sanitary science is so generally being
developed and understood. Residents of
both small and large cities are generally
supplied with water from rivers, lakes and
running streams, and expensive systems Of
scientific filtration are used to attempt to
purify the water thus obtained, but all
efforts in this direction have failed to make
perfectly pure supply. Impure water is
said by physicians to be very frequently
the cause of diarrhea, typhoid and malarial
fever. This has already been proven in
some localities where it has averaged a
large percentage of death rates to the thou
sand in the same cities, one portion using
riuer and stream water, the other portion
a1fesiaa iceu water, the death rate bein g
much less in that portion where artesian
water was used. There is a mistaken notion
that every drop Of water teens with animal
life. Pure water contains no life, and if
either the naked eye or the strongest
microscope reveals any insect life such
water is impure.
Rain water is by some considered pure,
and in the upper regions of the air probably
so, but before it reaches the earth it carries
with it impurities floating near the surface
such as insects, SCOT, vegetable and animal
organizes floating in the air, and when it
reaches the roofs Of houses it washes into
the cistern with it other matter, and as rain
water is free from mineral or saline ingre-
dents, it causes putrefaction very rapidly.
1t is excellent for washing, but it is neither
pleasant nor fit to drink. Hence, cistern
water, same as water taken from rivers,
running streams, etc., is not wholesome,
and ought to be rejected for family use.
In small town in Pennsylvania an
epidemic of typhoid fever compelled the
authorities to take the matter up, and they
found that typhoid fever had prevailed for
some time III a house some few miles above
the town, the surface, drainage, etc, which
was washed into the stream from which the
supply OF water was pumped. The
epidemic subsidized only when the source of
water supply was abandoned. To be can
did, the water in these streams, lakes, ETC.,
are never pure. These streams are simply
natures sewerage system. People who
would never think Of taking a drink
out of a creek or running stream, will
drink with relish and gusto if it is de-
liyered through an nickel-plated spigot.
Fact.
How to remedy this evil? Why not go
direct to natures already filtered supply?
Natures purifying process is two-fold.
First mechanical, and second chemical, but
principally mechanical The water i'm
pregnated with impurities starts down
through the sand and clay. The impurities
have an affinity for the clay, and the
various minerals of which they are com
posed readily combine with the clay and
become plant food and are returned to the
surface through the roots of plants, trees
and grasses. Others escape and continue
with the water down to point where the
water finds bed in which to stop. Here
these impurities being lighter than the
cooled water, remain on the surface of the
water bed until they find means of re-
turning to the surface in the form Of grass,
CT most generally pumped to earth again
from what we term surface wells, or the
old open windlass and bucket moss covered,
etc. Advantages in favor Of the drilled or
artesian well which can be cased through
the surface streams and its supply taken
from the second, third or fourth lower water
bed as may be desired. Such water
supply affords no room for stagnant water
A stream having been struck which fows
through the well constantly it never needs
cleaning Or JiHcring. Why ? The impurities
Of running stream and surface water being
cdsed off completely you get nothing but
pure water from below It is also reliable
in dry weather, since it does not depend on
wet weather streams nor surface influences
OF any kind. THEORY AND PR ACTJCE