Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-07-05
Protection OF Sources OF Water
Supply.

BY DIR. HENRY H. VAIL, WOODSTOCK.
Prepared at the request of the Com
mission on the Conservation of Natural
Resources of the State of Vermont.
Where does our water come from ?
Even in Vermont most of our water
comes from the ocean. The great
spiral storms that are daily reported by
the Weather Bureau at Washington
cover thousands of square miles and
their winds bring clouds from the
ocean to drop their burden of moisture
on the land. 1t should be remembered
that the ocean surface of the earth is
three times as large as the land surface.
The ocean is the great magazine of
water that supplies the land-however
remote from the shores. But the i'm
mediate sources of the water we use are
wells, springs, brooks and rivers. In
an uninhabited region these sources
would supply water entirely pure and
safe. If the sources are dangerous in
populated regions it is because of the
action of men.
1t is now perfectly well known that
many of the diseases most fatal to men
are communicated from the sick to the
we'll by means of infinitely small germs
living organisms many of which may
live for a considerable time in water.
These disease germs are so minute that
thousand of them would not if laid
side by side extend across the period
used in writing this article. They are
wholly invisible to the naked eye and
the finest microscopes are needed to
distinguish one kind from another.
| They are in effect the seeds of disease.
Several kinds may be conveyed from in
valids by water to healthful persons
and may produce in them the disease
existing in the patient. Typhoid fever
comes from taking into the system
typhoid germs as certainly as wheat
seed sown in the earth produces a wheat
plant. From typhoid patient millions
of germs are thrown out in the eXcre-
ment. These germs are more dangerous
than are the drugs marked Poison" in
the apothecaries shop for there is no
known antidote for typhoid germs. If
they are once lodged in a mans body
under certain conditions, run of ty-
phoid fever is inevitable.
Since there are many kinds of dis
ease germs that may be conveyed from
the sick to the well by drinking water
it is exceedingly important to secure
the sources of water from contamina-
ton. The history of one case will make
this clear. A village of some two
thousand inhabitants in Vermont was
supplied with water from a reservoir
made by damming brook This brook
ran through farm lands. In one house
was a'patient having typhoid fever
II was winter and the excrements from
the invalid were thrown out on the
snow. By the melting of the snow
the disease germs were carried to the
, reservoir and were thence distributed t
all the users of public water. TyphoiC
fever broke out all over the village bu
was limited to those using the publ,
water Thus the epidemic was trace
to its cause. The germs of one endemic
disease were conveyed through drinking
! water from the mucous membrane o
} an invalid to the bodies of hundreds
t and of these many died. The careless
y ness or ignorance of one person cause,
the death of scores. In this case tn
S germs of disease We're carried in sur
face water down slopes that wer
visible.
But the water that falls in any re
h gon does not all at once run off a
= surface water. A large part sinks int
f the earth through the loan, the sand O
gravel and through the loose rocks, ur
n til it comes to some continuous ur
S broken surface of clay or rock alon
# which it slowly trickles until it comes t
Il the open air as a spring Some of thi
"ground water" is caught and hel
e through the summer by vegetation
a some is held by the earth, maintainin
l. it's moisture, but large part passe
). down to the impervious layer of clay G
l, rock and runs, out of sight, carryin
Is with it soluble matter from the soil an
rocks and also carrying any diseas
-e germs that have been scattered on tn
h surface of the soil. 1t is therefor
g necessary to guard not only the surfaC
j. water in the form of brooks and river
,r but the ground water that final