_Disposal of Sewage._--No problem that confronts the dweller in the rural district is of greater importance than the proper disposal of sewage. It is unfortunately impossible in most instances for the farmer to have in his house a system of water-works, and, therefore, all dish-waters and slops are thrown into the yard, and a privy is used instead of a modern water-closet. Where the lay of the land is such that water readily runs off, or the soil is of a character that permits rapid absorption, throwing slops on the ground around the house may not constitute a danger to the inmates, but nothing is more certain than that the old fashioned privy is a dire menace to the health of all those in its vicinity. Not only are infectious materials brought into houses by flies, from fecal matter and other excretions, but they are carried away by the rains and sometimes contaminate sources of water-supply. It is furthermore extremely probable that bacteria in particles of dust from dried fecal material may be carried by the winds from privies into wells and houses, and as a consequence diseases may be spread; of perhaps still more importance--and certainly of far greater moment all over the southern portions of the country--is the fact that hook-worm disease and other infections caused by animal parasites are transmitted from man to man as the result of our adherence to the old fashioned privy. As will be explained in the chapter devoted to the common communicable diseases, the eggs of the hook-worm pass from the intestine along with the feces of those who are victims of this parasite and reaching the ground, hatch out in the course of a few days minute hook-worm embryos, which crawl away and permeate the soil in the vicinity; later collecting in little pools that form after rains, or in dew-drops during the night, they attach themselves to the skin of barefooted children who come in contact with such collections of water, and boring into the body ultimately, through a circuitous route, reach the intestines. Here they undergo further development, and in a short time become mature hook-worms, which in their turn lay eggs, and the life cycle begins over again. It is thus seen that a child having hook-worm disease becomes a menace, on account of the privy, to its brothers and sisters, and of course quite commonly receives back into its own body, worms that had previously escaped as eggs.