Instead of boiling the water, get to work to protect your own well from filth of all sorts, if you drink well water; or, if not, to help the Board of Health to agitate, and keep on agitating, until something is done to compel your selectmen or City Council to secure a pure supply.
[Illustration: THE DOMESTIC FILTER IN USE Unless the sand and charcoal in the glass bulb is very frequently cleaned, it serves merely as a "catch-all" for impurities, through which the water must flow.] Domestic Filters.

Much the same must be said of _private_ or _domestic filters_.

These are, at best, temporary substitutes, and should not be depended upon for permanent use.

Many of them are made to sell rather than to purify, and will remove only the larger or mechanical impurities from the water.

Others, while they work well at first, are exceedingly likely to become clogged, when the tendency is to punch at them to make them work faster, thus either poking a hole through them or cracking the filter-shell, so that a stream of water flows steadily through, just as impure as when it entered.