in other ways, and it is a very good plan to use boiled water, either when the water is very hard, or when there is any suspicion of impurity, both for drinking and for domestic purposes generally. It may be aerated by allowing it to fall from a height from one vessel into another. The average quantity of water required in a community is generally put down at from 30 to 35 gallons per head daily.

Of

these, from 20 to 25 are required for household purposes (including waste), where baths and water closets have to be supplied, and ten or more are necessary for washing the streets, for flushing the sewers, and for trade purposes.

The important sources of water are: (1.) Rain collected directly. This is of course very soft water, and in country places very pure. In towns it is rendered impure by the substances that it washes out of the air, and must be filtered before it is used, but it is everywhere an important and valuable source of soft water which is far too much neglected. It ought to be collected and used for do

mestic purposes, and wherever there is any suspicion as to the quality of the water supplied from other sources, rain water should (especially in the country) be used for drinking. It may be filtered through sand, gravel or charcoal by means of very simple contrivances.

(2.) Water is often obtained from shallow wells dug in the soil, down to a little below the level of the subsoil water. These, of course, drain the soil around for a greater or less distance, and the water in them frequently becomes contaminated by foul matters from leaky sewers, cesspools, etc., especially in pervious soils. Persons should therefore always be suspicious of the quality of water derived from shallow wells, for frequently, even when bright and sparkling, it is highly contaminated.

(3.) Springs and small streams are often used to provide supplies of water, and very pure water is obtained in this way, although it is sometimes rather hard. It is either conveyed directly to the town by means of aqueducts or

pipes, after the Roman plan, or collected from a gathering ground into large impounding reservoirs, and thence taken in pipes to the place to be supplied.

(4.) The water of large rivers is now frequently used as a source of supply. It is received in settling basins or reservoirs, where a deposit takes place, then filtered through beds of sand and gravel, and afterwards distributed. Most of the river water is contaminated in various ways during its passage through towns; and, without entering further into the subject here, I would merely say that it is better to obtain water that has not been contaminated, than to take water which we know has been contaminated, and then try to purify it.

(5.) Water is sometimes obtained from pervious water-bearing strata, at a considerable depth below the surface of the ground, by boring into them through the impervious strata which lie over them, and through which the water cannot penetrate. Wells with such borings from the bottom of them are known as arte

sian wells, from having been first generally used in the French province of Artois. The water contained in such water-bearing strata is supplied by the rain which falls on the outcrop of these strata, often at a considerable distance, and, frequently, as in London and Paris, on the hills around. This water percolates through the pervious rocks, and so gets beneath the impervious strata which lie over them after they have disappeared beneath the surface, and, being retained there under pressure, rises through borings made into the rock in which it is, through the impervious strata lying over it. This water, then, is generally, as may be expected, very pure, although it is frequently, especially if derived from the chalk, as that supplied by the Kent Company to London, very hard. Occasionally, as in some wells bored into the New Red Sandstone, it contains too much common salt to be fit for domestic purposes, which will not be wondered at when we consider that the largest deposits of salt we have, from which enor

mous quantities are obtained, are in the New Red Sandstone formation.

However the water is obtained, it is distributed to the houses in one of two ways, either by intermittent or by constant service. With the system of intermittent service, the water is turned on into the houses once or twice in the twenty-four hours for a short period each time. It is, therefore, necessary to have cisterns, butts, tanks, or receptacles of some kind to keep the water in during the intervals. In these, deposit occurs of the suspended matters contained in the water, and dust accumulates, especially if they are not covered, or if the covers are broken, and so the water is rendered impure. They also usually have a waste or overflow pipe, which is frequently connected with the sewers or with some part of the water-closet apparatus, and by means of which foul air finds its way into the cistern and contaminates the water. During the intervals, too, when the mains are not charged with water, foul water and foul air find their way from the soil