Country Folk Need Trained Health Nurse As Much as City Folk, 1921

Country Life and Health

Ye editor was out in the country recently in company with a trained nurse who is supposed to be posted on health conditions. By the side of the road was a beautiful spring that any one not posted would be glad to cool his thirsts from its cold sparkling waters. But that nurse balked at taking a drink from that spring and expressed herself freely about the possibility of the water being impure.

It is generally supposed by folks living in the country districts that a good spring is one of the safest supplies of water. These hot days are reminders that it is during just such weather that fevers are usually supposed to be most prevalent. The doctors now claim that most summer diseases are due to impure water.

In the light of these facts it is the duty of every man who has a home to look carefully to the supply of water that his family uses. Some years ago many wells were condemned here in this town that were supposed to be of the purest water, but they would not stand a test such as the State applies. They were filled up and the families put in city water. We suspect that a very large number of wells and springs on the farms of the country will show unhealthy conditions if the water should be sent to Raleigh for testing. If any citizen of the country has suspicions of his water supply, he can know the truth by applying to Dr. Williams, the health officer of the county. He will have the water analyzed and it will not cost the property owner a cent for his trouble.

The chances are that many citizens would be put to the expense of hunting for a pure water supply if this test should be made, but any thinking man would not want his family to use water from an impure source. It will cost much less to provide a pure water supply than it will to meet the expense that might grow out of using impure water.

From the editorial page of The Mount Airy News, J.E. Johnson & Son, publishers, June 30, 1921