A Handbook of Health - Woods Hutchinson (whitelam books txt) 📗
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Springs. Springs are formed on the same plan as the deep well, but with the difference that the waterproof layer on top of which the water is running either crops out on the surface again, lower down the mountain, or folds upon itself and comes up again to the surface some distance away from the mountain chain, out on the level. This is why springs are usually found in or near mountainous or hilly regions. If the water of a spring has gone deep enough into, or far enough through, the layers of the earth, it may, like water of some of the artesian wells, contain certain salts and minerals, particularly soda, sulphur, and iron. Such springs are often highly valued as mineral water, healing springs, or baths, partly because of these salts, partly on account of their peculiar taste. Most of the virtues ascribed to mineral waters or springs are due, however, to their pure water, and its cleansing effects internally and externally when freely used.
Springs are among the most highly prized sources of water supply, because they have gone underground sufficiently deep to become well filtered and cooled to a low temperature, and usually not far enough to become too heavily loaded with salts or minerals like the waters of the deep wells. It must, however, be remembered that they also come from rain-water, and that in hilly or broken regions the source of that rain water may be the surface of the ground only a few hundred yards up the hill or mountain, and impurities there may affect it. Much of the delightful sparkle of spring water is due, as in the case of the popular soda water, to the presence of carbon dioxid, only in spring water it is produced by the decomposition of vegetable matter in it. As springs usually break out in a hollow or at the foot of a hill, unless carefully closed in they are quite liable to contamination from rain water from the surrounding surface of the ground. Where springs of a sufficient size can be reached, or a sufficiently "live" series of deep wells can be bored, these furnish a safe source of water supply for cities. But of course not more than one city in five or ten is so favored.
Mountain Reservoirs. Two other methods of securing a water supply are now generally adopted. One is to pick out some stream up in the hills or mountains, within fifteen miles or so of the city, and put in a dam, thus making a reservoir, or to enlarge some lake which already exists there. At the same time, the entire valley, or slope of the mountain, which this stream or lake drains of its surface water, is bought up by the Government, or turned into a forest reserve, so that no houses can be built or settlement of any kind permitted upon it. It can still be used for lumber supply, for pastures, and, within reasonable limits, for a great public hunting and fishing reserve and camping resort.
Almost every intelligent and farsighted town, which has not springs or deep wells, is looking toward the acquirement of some such area as this for its source of pure water. Many great cities go from thirty to fifty miles, and some even a hundred and fifty miles, in order to reach such a source, carrying the water into the city in a huge water-pipe, or aqueduct. These cities find that the millions of dollars saved by the prevention of death and disease amount to many times the cost of such a system, while the water rents gladly paid by both private houses and manufacturing establishments give good interest on the investment. Any town can afford to go a mile for every thousand of its population for such a source of water supply as this; and secure, gratis, a valuable forest preserve, public park, and beauty spot.[15]
Filtration. The other method, which has to be adopted by cities situated on level plains, or at the mouths of great rivers, is to take the water of some lake, or river, as far out in the former, or as high up the latter, as possible, and purify it by filtration. This can be done at a moderate expense by preparing great settling-basins and filter-beds. The first are great pools or small lakes, into which the water is run and held until most of the mud and coarser dirt has settled or sunk. Then this clear water above the sediment is run on to great beds, first of gravel, then of coarse sand, then of fine sand; and if these beds are large enough, and frequently changed and cleaned, so that they do not become clogged, and the process is carried out slowly, the water, when it comes through the last bed, is pure enough to drink safely.[16]
One of these sources of a safe and wholesome water-supply—the deep flowing well, or spring; the water shut up in the mountains in its lake or reservoir; or the slow filter-bed—should be used by every intelligent and progressive town of more than a thousand inhabitants.
Sewage and its Disposal. At the same time, while seeking a source of water-supply far removed from any possibility of contagion, we must not neglect the other end of the problem, the protecting of our rivers and lakes from pollution so far as possible; for the water from these must necessarily be used by thousands of people along their banks, either directly, or in the form of shallow wells, sunk not far from the water's edge. Moreover, so foul are many of our rivers and streams becoming in thickly settled regions that fish can no longer live in them, and it is hardly safe to bathe in them.[17] Fortunately, however, a great deal of the worst contamination can be prevented by using modern methods of disposing of sewage, such as filter-beds and sewage farms. All of these methods use the bacteria of the soil, or crops growing in it, to eat up the waste and thus purify the sewage.
Boiling. Where the water that you are obliged to drink is not known to be pure, then it can be made quite safe for drinking purposes by the simple process of boiling it for about ten or fifteen minutes. But this, except in travelling or in emergencies, is a lazy, slipshod substitute for pure water, and extremely unsatisfactory as well; for the boiling drives off all its air and other gases, and throws down most of the salts, so that boiled water has a flat, insipid taste. These salts, although sometimes regarded as impurities, are not such in any true sense; for the lime and soda especially are of considerable value in the body, so that boiled or sterilized water is neither a pleasant nor a wholesome permanent drink. Instead of boiling the water, get to work to protect your own well from filth of all sorts, if you drink well water; or, if not, to help the Board of Health to agitate, and keep on agitating, until something is done to compel your selectmen or City Council to secure a pure supply.
THE DOMESTIC FILTER IN USE
Unless the sand and charcoal in the glass bulb is very frequently cleaned, it serves merely as a "catch-all" for impurities, through which the water must flow.
Domestic Filters. Much the same must be said of private or domestic filters. These are, at best, temporary substitutes, and should not be depended upon for permanent use. Many of them are made to sell rather than to purify, and will remove only the larger or mechanical impurities from the water. Others, while they work well at first, are exceedingly likely to become clogged, when the tendency is to punch at them to make them work faster, thus either poking a hole through them or cracking the filter-shell, so that a stream of water flows steadily through, just as impure as when it entered. Private filters, like boiling water, are only temporary ways of meeting conditions which ought not to be allowed to exist at all in civilized communities, or in your own homes.
A score of court decisions in all parts of the world have now held that the water company is legally responsible for all avoidable pollution of public water-supplies, and nine tenths of pollutions are avoidable.
CHAPTER X BEVERAGES, ALCOHOL, AND TOBACCOThe Popularity of Beverages. For some curious reason, the habit has grown up of taking a large part of the six glasses of water that we require daily in the form of mixtures known as beverages. These beverages are always much more expensive than pure water; are often quite troublesome to secure and prepare; have little, or no, food value; are of doubtful value even in small amounts; and injurious in large ones. Why they should ever have come into such universal use, in all races and in all ages of the world, is one of the standing puzzles of human nature. They practically all consist of from ninety to ninety-eight per cent of water, the food elements that may be added to them being in such trifling amounts as to be practically of no value. They serve no known useful purpose in the body, save as a means of introducing the water which they contain; and yet mankind has used them ever since the dawn of history.
We Have no Natural Appetite for Beverages. It is a most striking fact that, although these beverages have been drunk by the race for centuries, we have never developed an instinct or natural appetite for them! No child ever yet was born with an appetite or natural liking for beer or whiskey; and very few children really like the taste of tea or coffee the first time, although they soon learn to drink them on account of the sugar and cream in them. Thus, nature has clearly marked them off from all the real foods on our tables, showing that they are not essential to either life or health; and that they are absolutely unnecessary, and almost always harmful in childhood and during the period of growth. If no child ever drank alcohol until he really craved it, as he craves milk, sugar, and bread and butter, there would be no drunkards in the world. Our other food-instincts have shown themselves worthy to be trusted—why not trust this one, and let these beverages, especially alcohol, absolutely alone?
Statistics from the alcoholic wards of our great hospitals show that of those who become drunkards, nearly ninety per cent begin to drink before they are twenty years old. Of that ninety per cent, over two-thirds took their first drink, not because they felt any craving for it, or even thought
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