Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology / A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.

by George Michael James Giles

Where water of undeniable purity is laid on, all that has to be attended to is the method of transport from the nearest standpost to the house, for it is as yet extremely exceptional for pipes to be carried right into buildings as is the practice in Europe, so that a special servant as a water-carrier is still a necessity in India, even in large towns. In this case, and indeed whatever may be the source of supply, it is of the greatest importance that nothing but metal vessels, so constructed as to be easily cleaned, should on any account be used. In all Mahomedan countries, water is conveyed in a goat or calf skin, stripped from the animal entire, with the legs tied up, and filled from the neck, which is secured with a thong for transport; and it is a most unfortunate circumstance that it has become traditional for Europeans to employ the Mahomedan bhisti with his mashak instead of the more cleanly Hindu kahar with his easily cleansed iron water vessel, for the Mahomedan water-skin or mashak is an abomination that cannot be too strongly condemned. Few will, it is thought, deny that if a piece of half-tanned hide were found lying in water intended for domestic uses, they would at once reject it; and apart from the objectionable character of the material of the mashak, it must be remembered that from its construction it is absolutely impossible to clean the interior; and this must necessarily become foul in the course of a few days’ use, even if it were constructed of silver instead of half-dressed hide. Added to this, it has been ascertained, by actual experiment, that disease germs, deposited on the outside of a water-skin, are capable of growing into and working through it, and so continuously contaminating the contained water. Anyone who knows the ways of the bhisti must be familiar with the careless way in which his mashak is laid down on the ground anywhere that may come handy, so that it cannot fail to get frequently fouled with germs of all sorts, which, owing to the vessel being composed of organic material, find themselves at once placed on a “culture medium” as congenial to their growth as if prepared in a laboratory.

The above reasons, it is thought, should suffice to show that no leather vessel should on any account be tolerated in connection with our water supply, and it may be added that there is no difficulty whatever in substituting cleanly metal buckets for the abominable filth trap that has just been described.

While the Hindu holds the wholesome belief that contact with leather means utter defilement to water, and would very probably die at the stake rather than drink from a mashak; the use of the latter by the Mahomedan is purely a matter of custom, in no way connected with religious sanction, so that in hospitals too small to afford a double establishment, a Hindu water-man alone is entertained, because no Mahomedan can object on the score of religion to taking water from any cleanly vessel or from any one’s hands, so that though a bhisti can serve the Mahomedan alone, a kahar can serve both castes.

For many years before leaving India the writer insisted on the use of metal buckets for carrying his household water, a pair being carried slung from the ends of a bamboo balanced on the shoulder; and it never became necessary to dismiss the Mahomedan water-carrier, as he always proved ready to adopt the change, as soon as he discovered one was in earnest in the matter, and that any infraction of the rules meant instant dismissal.

There are no more hard-working and better servants in India than the bhistis, who are deservedly, as a body, great favourites with the European community, ever ready to put their hand to anything. One who once served me for several years used often to act as factotum on short expeditions, cooking my food and waiting at table, and finally, as no groom was available at the last moment, marched one of my horses from one end of the Punjab to the other by himself, and brought it in in good condition. With willing and obliging men of this sort, it is naturally easy, by a little insistence, to ensure the adoption of any plan that does not actually clash with their religious beliefs—and I can assure my Anglo-Indian readers that they, too, will meet with no difficulty in introducing this important reform, provided they show clearly from the first that they mean to be obeyed. It is rarely even necessary to threaten to entertain a Hindoo paniwalla in the bhisti’s place, for as a race they are of the most amenable.

Putting aside public water supplies, the usual sources are wells, rivers and springs. Of these, the first are, in most parts of the world, the most common form of private water supply, and, speaking generally, they are by far the most reliable, for save in most exceptional cases, the pollution of a well always takes place from above. It is, of course, most desirable that the upper part of the well tube should be lined with impervious cement, but provided a reasonable amount of care be taken to prevent the surface of the ground near the well becoming fouled, little danger is to be apprehended from dirty surface water gaining admission to the well, for there are few better filters than a few feet of ordinary soil. The ordinary filter, employed in large waterworks, consists of nothing more than a few feet of sand, and it is well known that, when in good working order, such filters rival even the Pasteur biscuit porcelain filter in their power of excluding germs.

Now to reach the interior of a well by any other route than through its mouth, water must needs pass through a much greater thickness of soil than is ever used for the filtration of water on a large scale, and hence, provided the mouth of a well be protected, its water may be used with the greatest confidence.

At first sight, it appears that nothing should be easier than to provide the well with a water-tight cover of some sort, and draw all water by means of a pump; and wherever the water lies sufficiently near the surface, and the means of keeping a pump in repair are at hand, there can be no doubt that there can be no better plan. Very often, however, wells are so deep as to necessitate the use of a force pump, in which case, unless long connecting rods are used, which are very apt to get out of order, the pumper has to work half-way down the well, a necessity which introduces new difficulties and dangers.

In places where pumps cannot be readily repaired, it is useless to attempt the adoption of this method of raising water, and one must trust to other means of protecting the supply. The mouth of the well should be raised a foot or two above the level of the ground by building a masonry drum, wide enough for the person drawing water to stand on, and well sloped, so that slopped water runs off, and not back into the well.

It is further highly important to protect the well from drifting leaves and dust, and also from being used by strangers and passers-by. This is most easily effected by building a well-house over the mouth of the well, provided with a door, for even if this is not kept always locked, it at least serves as an intimation to outsiders that the well is not public property, which will probably be generally respected. As the well-house may be of the simplest material and construction, the cost of one need be no bar to the adoption of the plan; for the shelter will always be of small dimensions, and can be built with walls of sun-dried brick and a thatched roof, or even of grass screens throughout.