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IDEAL HOME LIFE |
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kinds, whether in solution, in suspension, or in sediment. It should have no disagreeable taste nor offensive odor, and its attractiveness is increased when it is clear and transparent, and of sufficiently low temperature to produce an agreeable sense of coolness not only in the mouth and stomach, but throughout the entire body.
It is difficult to say which is preferable, a private or public water supply. In certain cases one or the other must be depended upon. A private supply is often impure, owing to the carelessness or ignorance of the individual. A public supply cannot long be impure and harmful without endangering the health of the community, and consequently exposing the company or corporation to the risk of litigation for heavy damages.
Water drains through porous soils or flows along the surface, taking a course which is influenced by the slope and inclination of the ground over which, or through which, it may flow. It flows in streams along the surface, or sometimes under the surface, collects in springs and pools in the course of its drainage below the surface, and is collected in cisterns and reservoirs, either natural or artificial, as it falls from the clouds.
Where there is no public supply, premises become the more valuable as they are supplied with springs and streams which become available with the minimum outlay of force and expense.
Water is a complex substance; it is never absolutely free from organic and inorganic material, or both, except when produced by the direct combination of oxygen and hydrogen, or when derived from distillation. The dissolving or solvent power of water being great, it gathers many substances in a dissolved condition as it flows along, or as it remains stationary in the location where it may have been collected. Animal and vegetable life make large contributions to the constituents of water, but the inorganic or mineral elements which are also constituents, are far more abundant. Animal sewage, decayed and decomposing vegetation, the eggs and larvae of countless insects, the germs of numerous diseases are of such frequent occurrence in water, and are capable of doing so much mischief, that rigid tests of public water supplies are often re |
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