ed _typhoid fever_ is carried in
this way.

Fifty years ago, cities and towns used to be very careless about where
they got their water supply, and would often take it out of streams
into which other cities emptied their sewage. Now, however, they are
much more particular; and the health officers, or Boards of Health,
are insisting that public water supply, such as is brought into our
houses in pipes, shall be taken either from some spring or
deep-flowing well, or from a stream or lake up in the hills, into
which no drainage from houses or farmyards, and no dirty water from
factories, empties.

[Illustration: A PIPE FOR THE CITY WATER SUPPLY

This pipe is laid for many miles to bring water from the distant
hills.]

We are still, however, far from being as careful as we should be about
this; and I am sorry to say that America has had more deaths from
typhoid fever than any other civilized country. Germany, which, of all
countries in the world, is the most particular about keeping its water
supply pure, has the fewest deaths from this cause, in proportion to
its population--scarcely one fifth as many as we have.

Therefore, by taking proper care, it would be quite possible to
prevent at least two thirds of our nearly 400,000 cases of typhoid
fever and 35,000 deaths from typhoid, every year.

It is not only cities and towns that ought to be careful of their
water supply. In fact, now, out on the farms and in the healthy
country districts, the death rate from typhoid fever has actually
become higher than it is in our large cities. The main cause of this
is the custom of digging the well in such a place that the waste water
thrown out from the house, or the drainage from the barnyard or the
pigpen or the chicken-house may wash into it, soaking down through the
porous soil. Far more typhoid fever now is spread by means of infected
well water than by any other means.

Most dangerous of all is the leakage from the privy vault; as, by this
means, the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases that affect the
food tube and digestion may drain through the soil till they reach the
drinking water in the well. These dangers can be avoided either by
having the well dug at some distance from the house and in higher
ground, or by having the drainage from the house, barns, and
out-buildings piped and carried to a safe distance from the well.

Fortunately, there are only a few kinds of germs that make us sick.
Most g