The most refreshing as well as most wholesome water is river or spring
water, perfectly filtered so that no possible impurity can remain. It is
then soft and clear; has sufficient air and carbonic acid to make it
refreshing, and enough earthy salts to prevent its taking up lead, and so
becoming poisonous. River-water for daily use of course requires a system
of pipes, and in small places is practically unavailable; so that wells
are likely, in such case, to be the chief source of supply. Such water
will of course be spring-water, with the characteristics of the soil
through which it rises. If the well be shallow, and fed by surface
springs, all impurities of the soil will be found in it; and thus to _dig
deep_ becomes essential, for many reasons. Dr. Parker of England, in some
papers on practical hygiene, gives a clear and easily understood statement
of some causes affecting the purity of well-water.
"A well drains an extent of ground around it, in the shape of an inverted
cone, which is in proportion to its own depth and the looseness of the
soil. In very loose soils a well of sixty or eighty feet will drain a
large area, perhaps as much as two hundred feet in diameter, or even more;
but the exact amount is not, as far as I know, precisely determined.
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