son to purchase goods and had drunk water from the
Loundsbury spring.

"Two years ago two cases died of typhoid fever on the property on which
the Brown well is situated. Their stools were treated with lime and
buried on the hill behind the house. Three cases of the same fever have
occurred in the same house this season. The well in question is laid up
with stone and cement and was supposed to be tight and impervious to
surface water contamination. Investigation, however, proved that there
were openings in the stone work in the side toward the privy. On
examining the privy it was found that the foundation was composed of
loose stones without cement or mortar that would readily allow the fecal
contents to be washed down toward the well, the privy being about three
feet higher than the well, the natural descent of the land being about
one foot in twenty-five, the distance between privy and well being only
about eighty feet. Another factor favoring the well contamination from
this privy is that any filth washed downward from the privy toward the
well would be stopped by the wall of the house proper and carried
directly toward the well which lies close to the southeast corner of the
house. Thus all of the conditions point to privy contamination of this
well which should be at once cemented up on the inside, thoroughly
cleansed and purified, before its use should be permitted, while all the
privies in question should be provided with vaults of brick eight inches
thick with eight-inch brick floors all laid with cement, and their
inside surfaces lined with cement at least one inch thick, to prevent
any further possible contamination."

In view of the imminent danger always possible wherever human wastes are
directly discharged into streams, whether from privies or sewers, it is
obvious that water so contaminated should never on any account be used
as drinking water. It does not follow, because a stream so contaminated
has been used for months or years without producing any evidence of
disease, that the water is safe. Unless an excessive amount of organic
matter is so transmitted, no evidence will be found that such pollution
has existed through any outbreak of disease. But if once the discharges
become affected through a person having typhoid fever, then the result
of the infection is apparent immediately. If, therefore, an inspection
of the stream above the point where it is proposed to take the
water-supply shows the existe