About five weeks before the death of the father,—that was some time in January,—I was called to the house to attend his son, a lad six years of age, with dysentery accompanied with petechial eruption over the limbs and body. He recovered slowly. In about two weeks two other sons, aged respectively eight and ten years, came down in the same way with dysentery and the eruption, causing them to scratch vigorously. The mother was troubled with the eruption, but no dysentery. D. M. CURRIER. THE RYE BEACH WELL, which has attracted considerable attention the present season, and been the source of many false newspaper reports, is most remarkable in the history of water pollution. Briefly, the history connected therewith is as follows: A wealthy Philadelphian by the name of Lewis, who has spent his summers at this noted beach for the last twelve years, bought last spring a lot of land, and built a very expensive and elegant summer residence. The location was upon an elevation some forty or fifty feet higher than the sea, and but a short distance from the water. This elevation is made up mostly of seamy ledges, with but a few feet of soil covering the same. From a sanitary point of view, no better site could possibly be selected. Instead of building a sewer to the ocean for drainage purposes, he constructed a cess-pool forty feet distant from the house, into which all the sewage from the house ran. In building this cess-pool it was necessary to excavate three feet of the ledge to get a good and sufficient depth. Sixty feet from this cess-pool, and apparently upon the same level, was dug the well which was to supply this residence with water. After reaching the ledge, it was necessary to go ten feet into the rock to get sufficient water, which was obtained in abundance, and was excellent in quality. The well and cess-pool were both constructed at the same time, and in _two weeks after, the well was polluted by this cess-pool_. The family, not realizing the source of pollution or its danger, continued to use the water for a short time afterwards, or until it became so tainted that it was repulsive to the senses of taste and smell. The result was the death of Mr. Lewis, and a lady visitor who lived in the vicinity and frequently drank of this water, and a severe illness of a daughter of Mr. Lewis, his servant, and a guest of the family. These seemed to be cases of blood poisoning, the severer ones resembling in their last stage typhoid fever. This instance of well pollution illustrates the fact that a rock formation, though generally believed to be the best safeguard against the contamination of a well, may be the most dangerous. The seams which existed in this ledge no doubt served as direct channels to convey the filth to this well. The following instance of well pollution seems to illustrate in what unsuspected ways water may become contaminated: