The Construction Of Wells

Puro water is one of the necessaries of civilized existence, and just in proportion to the increase of population and the increase of civiiization, does il become difficult to obtain it. Of course, the character of the soil has muob to do with the purity of the well ; but, in many cases, inuch sickness would be avoided if all water used for domestic purposes was carefully filtered, or if cesspools were abolished and , resort had to the deodorizing agency of dry clay, as used in the earth closet. The fact that most wells, as at present constructed, are liable to be coutaiuinated with sewage and the drainings froin cesspools, which either ñow in frora the surfaco or reach the well by passing thróugh veins, fissures, gravel-beds, or porous layers at a lower level, has aroused a feeling in the popular niind which we hope will lead to such action as will speediiy remsve this eource of disease and death. Two courses are open to us; - One is to abolish all cesspools, and adopt the more convenient as well as less offensive system, which depends upon the deodorization of fecal matter, and its utilization as manure ; the other consists in so constuotng our wells that nothing can reach them except that which has been filtered through dense beds of soil. Merely passthrough fissures in the soil will not answer ; every partiële of the water must come iuto contact with the soil, so as to be freed from all offensive matter. To secure this we must make sure that wherever our well passes through a porous stratum, the fluids which inay, by any iossibility, pass through that stratnm, shall bo prevented from entering the well. The only effectual method of accomplishing this is either by puddling or the use of cement. Almost all wells are stoned up with loose stones, laid dry so that any liquid that reaches them bas free access to the well. Even where the bore of the well passes through gravelbeds, it is not usual, at least in this country, to use any precautions looking to the prevention of this evil ; and we have even seen a well sunk in a barnyard and stoned up with loose stones. The worst of it is that Bueh irapurities are not readily detected by the sonses. Sewage water that has had the cruder portion of its impurities removed by imperfect filtration, is not only clear and sparkling but peculiarly pleasant to the taste, from the gases and salts it contains ; but it is, nevertheless, the source of some of our most fatal diseases. The only way to remove this poisonous quality, is to filter the water through a thick and dense bed of soil, or a thick layer of charcoal ; and as it very rarely happens that it is convenient to do this after the water has been drawn from the welt, we ought to use every means to keep imnure water