The ratio of the supply to the population varies in different towns. In Edinburgh,.
it is 47 gallons for each individual; in Glasgow, it is 50 gallons. This includes the water furnished to works of various kinds. The eight companies that supply London pour into the city and suburbs not much less than 100,000,000 gallons daily, which gives 200 gallons per house (including manufactories), or 26 gallons to each person. Notwithstanding this. owing to the neglect of the proprietors, thousands of the poor get but little of it directly any day, and none at all on Sundays." Cisterns, pipes.Owing to the action of water on lead, already described, it is desira ble to avoid the use of that metal in connection with very soft lake or river water. With regard to lead pipes, if the precaution is taken when the water has stood for any time in them, of allowing the first portions to run off before any is taken for use, little danger can arise; but either lead cisterns should be wholly avoided, or means taken to ascertain whether they contaminate the water; and if so, a remedy should be applied. There are various substitutes for lead as a lining for cisterns. Slate slabs are highly recommended. Gutta-percha is also found to be an easily fitted, cheap, and durable For a few days, the water tastes of the naptha used iu applying the lining; but afterward, no kind of water, not even acids, have any action on the gutta-percha. Pipes of gutta-percha may also be used; they are cheap, and easily fitted up.
simplest of all water-supplies is that of a cottage or farmhouse in the country, with a good spring rising to the surface close by; and yet what a poor use is usually made of such a precious boon! The country well is generally a simple cavity to receive the spring, rudely lined, it may be, with stones,, but with open mouth, into which dust and dead leaves are blown by every wind, and foul surface-water is trickling from all sides. Being exposed to the light, there is generally a profuse vegeta
tion on the bottom and sides, and, in addition to these impurities, it is further muddied by the dipping in of buckets, often dirty on the outside. Who has not been disgusted, when asking a drink at a cottage, to get water thick with dust and visible impurities, knowing, at the same time, that it might be so easily remedied? A surface-spring should always be covered, and made to issue by a pipe, half a day's labor to create a fall, and a clay drain-tube, will generally convert a filthy puddle into a crystal fount. It is singu lar to see this blindness to the impurity of water in people otherwise cleanly enough. This is a subject worth the attention of country physicians and clergymen. The evil effects of drinking impure water are not confined to towns. May not the putrid sore throat and maglignant fevers that often sweep away whole households in the country, especially in autumn, be partly owing to the cause how pointed at? Deep wells should invariably be covered, and carefully protected from the infiltration of superficial ooze. The situation of pump-wells is often singularly ill chosen in this `expect. See ARTESIAN WELLS.