It is of the utmost importance that water used for drinking and cooking should be absolutely pure. To be careless about this matter is to invite malaria, typhoid and many other dangerous diseases. If any doubt exists as to the purity of the water, which supplies your family, have it examined. Often this question of drinking water is the hinge on which the whole subject of health turns. Filters require great care and close attention to secure absolute cleanliness, by frequent changes of the filtering material, or they will only make a bad matter worse. The safest way is to boil water, when its purity is doubtful, and cool it in clean, tightly corked bottles. Boiling destroys disease germs.

The well or source of water supply should on no account be situated anywhere near to barn, stable, cesspools, manure heaps, earth closets, or any other possible means of contamination, since the fluid from these filters through the earth and is often carried considerable distances, finally joining veins or springs of water that flow to the well. Look into this water question most carefully, and spare neither trouble nor expense to make it right. Remember, there is no healthful substitute for pure water-nature's provision for one of man's chief needs.