THE STORY OF WATER.
[Illustration:
GOVERNOR-GENERAL CARRIDEO
Who gave Manila her waterworks.
]
Many years ago there was a wise governor-general in the Philippine
Islands, who left a large sum of money to the city of Manila. This money
was to be put out at interest and allowed to increase, and in his will
the governor-general directed that when there should be a large enough
sum, it should be used to build waterworks for the city of Manila.
[Illustration:
PUMPING STATION, MANILA WATERWORKS.
]
The waterworks were not built until a hundred years after the
governor-general died. In 1872 another wise governor-general came to the
islands, and learning of this money which had been left, he at once set
to work to provide the city with a water supply. This was one of the
best things that ever happened to Manila. In the tropics nothing is more
important than pure water.
There is a great deal of water in the body. In fact, three fourths of
the body is made up of water. It is in the blood, in the muscles, and in
the bones. There is even some water in the enamel of the teeth, which is
the hardest substance in the whole body. The digestive juices, the
saliva, and the different intestinal juices, all help to dissolve some
part of the food which we take. To obtain this power to dissolve the
food, they depend upon water.
When a man is thirsty, it seems to him that his throat is dry. But
dryness of the throat is only a sign by which the body makes known its
need. Thirst is the cry of the fluids and tissues for water. It means
that some part of the body is suffering for the precious fluid.
If we look at a drop of water under a microscope, which magnifies it
many times, we shall see in the water a great number of moving specks
which are really little animals. The animals are so small that thousands
of them can live in a single drop of water as happily as they could in a
whole ocean of room. They are called germs. Some of them are wholesome:
they help to keep the water bright and sparkling and sweet, and make it
pleasant to the taste. But some of them are very harmful: they produce
many kinds of disease, most of which cause death.
It is because of these germs that people, particularly in tropical
countries, have to be so careful about the water they drink. The purest
water that we have is clean rain water. This is the vapor which rises
from the earth and from the surface of the sea. It ascends into the air
until it strikes a current of cold air, when it is turned into moisture
and falls as rain.
We can catch the rain water in cisterns or other vessels; and this water
we may drink without boiling, if we are careful to keep the cisterns
clean. The cistern, to be perfectly sweet, should be emptied and cleaned
at least once every two weeks.
[Illustration:
THE WRONG PLACE FOR A WELL.
]
In this country nearly all the drinking water comes from wells. Well
water may be very good, but the chances are that it is full of
impurities. The water from the wells is rain water which has soaked into
the earth and has collected in the well. But the earth is always full of
impurities. It is like a great sponge through which the water flows, and
the water is pretty sure to take up some impurities as it sinks through
the earth.
If a well is near an outhouse or stable, or a place where cattle are
kept, the water that filters through this earth will carry with it germs
from these places. A well should always be on higher ground than any
outbuildings. It should be some distance from the house, and no slops or
anything emptied from the house should be put near it. No drainage of
any kind should run near it.
In the city of Pittsburg, in the United States, some years ago, there
was an epidemic of typhoid fever. Many thousands of people died, and at
last the legislature of Pennsylvania appointed a committee to
investigate the cause of the epidemic. This committee began to study the
source of the city water supply. They traced it far up the mountains,
many miles away, until they found a certain little stream emptying into
a large river which supplied the city. Living on the banks of this
stream was a family where there was a case of typhoid fever. The slops
from the house had been thrown into the stream and had so poisoned the
water that thousands of people in far-away Pittsburg died of typhoid
fever.
In Manila there was once a great cholera epidemic, during which more
than thirty thousand Filipinos in the city and province of Manila died;
many Spanish people died also. During the worst of the epidemic the
death rate was at least a thousand every day. But only one Englishman
died, and it is said that his death was due to his own carelessness in
drinking impure water.
If everybody in the city had boiled and filtered the drinking water, as
the Americans and the English did, nearly all of these thirty thousand
people would have escaped death.
What has been said of the impurities collected by water passing through
the earth is especially true of the water which supplies Manila. The
ground all about the city has been so long occupied by large numbers of
people, the drainage has been so poor and so many impurities have been
cast out, that the soil for a great distance around the city is a mass
of decay. To stir up the earth, as when digging and laying pipes, makes
the men who do it feverish and often ill, because of the gases rising
from the soil. We may judge from this how bad the water must be that
drains through the earth and is collected in the wells of the city. Even
the water in the Carriedo water pipes cannot be said to be pure. It
comes from a river far from the city. On the banks of this river are
many native villages, and the people throw all sorts of refuse into the
stream. They wash their clothes in it, and bathe themselves, their
horses, and their carabaos there. For this reason the water should be
purified before we drink it.
When the Americans first came to Manila the city was not kept as clean
as it is now. This is one reason why there were so many deaths in
Manila, and because of the high death rate, the Americans at once set to
work to clean the city. To do this cost the lives of many American
soldiers, who died of fever caused by bad gases from the earth; but
since it was done, the death rate in Manila is less than it ever was
before.
But even yet the death rate is greater than it would be, if everybody
would be careful about food and drink. The greater number of those who
die are little children. Indeed, one third of all the deaths in Manila
are of children who die of a single complaint. This is the terrible fits
from which we so often see little babies suffering. The fits are caused
by trouble in the stomach and bowels, arising from bad food and drink.
Sometimes the little one dies because it is worn out by the pain it has
suffered. Sometimes the brain is affected by the stomach trouble; but
the true cause of death in every such case is impure water or the wrong
kind of food. Most of the trouble comes from the water which the
children drink.
Not even a grown person ought to drink water that has not been boiled.
It is not safe, for the germs of many of the tropical diseases are found
in the water. All of these germs are killed by that degree of heat which
we call the boiling point. No less heat than this will kill them.
It is not enough merely to heat the water; it must really boil for at
least five minutes after it begins to bubble and simmer. It ought then
to be strained through a clean cloth and put at once into a banga or
some other of the jars used to contain water. The jar should be clean,
and should have a cover. If it is hung in a draft of air, the water will
become cool enough to drink.
The jars used to hold water should be of ware that will “sweat” after
the liquid has been in them for some time. That is, the outside should
be covered with beads of moisture which have crept through the sides.
This sort of jar keeps the water cool and lets the air get to it. Water,
after it has been boiled, is tasteless and flat, and until it again
takes up oxygen from the air, it is not so pleasant to drink, or so
digestible as it was before boiling.
We have seen how important water is to life, and we cannot have too high
an idea of the importance of its being pure. It is not enough that water
looks clear and sparkling. It may look like crystal and yet be full of
poisonous germs. The only way to be certain that it is pure is to boil
it and then see that no further impurities get into it before it is
used.
QUESTIONS.
What is thirst?
What is the proportion of water in the body?
What is the purest sort of water we have?
How does water become unfit for drinking?
How may it be purified and made fit to drink?
How should drinking water be kept?