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The vast amount of literature devoted to this subject, containing a varied scope of discussions, arguments and analyses, has a tendency to lead one to the conclusion that wholesome water scarcely exists. In fact, the theory advanced by the Massachusetts State Board of Health, in their Fifth Annual Report, is not so premature. They say:

“The time may come when it will be necessary to supply our drinking water from sedulously guarded but limited sources of supply, and to furnish for manufacturing and other uses less pure water. This plan is partly carried out in Paris, and it is the purpose to enlarge it, although much of the water is unfit to drink.

“The injurious character of a water, impregnated with sewage matter, might not be discovered for years. You might go on using it for years and might not be discovered, and you might have some outbreak of disease in the place, which nevertheless might be connected with the use of that sewage water.”

The Rivers Pollution Commission of Great Britain struggled with this subject for six years, and at last resolved upon the following classification of potable waters: