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matter by the mixture of an additional quantity of lime.
If such a supply be impracticable, what is to prevent our
being supplied from two sources, one abundant and cheap,
from having undergone no artificial purification, and the
other filtered and deprived of its hardened constituents 1 If
the objection be that of expense, it is not valid, for the
balance of cost would be much in favour of the consumer,
by setting off the sum economized, which would certainly
attend the consumption of the purified and softened water.
Washing would be cheaper and better performed,—our
boiled food would be more easily cooked in a superior
manner,—more money could be spared for tea and coffee from
the poor man's pittance; and by discountenancing and preventing
the use of other water for potable purposes, we
should avail ourselves of a potent force to oppose disease and
maintain health. Of this there can be no possible doubt;
to estimate the extent of the boon we have only to imagine
the advantage which would accrue to an individual or to a
single family as one of the units of which the public is composed.
SURFACE WELLS.
The water obtained from surface wells in a populous
neighbourhood should not, on any account, be drunk. The
nearer such wells are to the surface, the more unfit are they
for such a purpose; the deeper, the less is the probability of
the water being hurtful, but it is safer to avoid them altogether.
By the aid of the microscope, portions of unchanged
animal and other organic matter may be, and have frequently
been, discovered in such well water; and the
offensive addition could only be present through some