Vienna commissioner
also reported in favor of a moderately hard water for the same reason.
It is to-day believed by many that children ought to have lime in water;
that is, ought to drink hard water to prevent or ward off "rickets" or
softening of the bones. An English commissioner, on the other hand, has
concluded that, other things being equal, the rate of mortality is
practically uninfluenced by the softness or hardness of the
water-supply. This same commissioner has also shown that in the British
Isles the tallest and most stalwart men were found in Cumberland and in
the Scotch Highlands, where the water used is almost invariably very
soft (Thresh's "Water-supplies").

It has been asserted that certain diseases, not necessarily causing
death, are caused by hard water, as calculus, cancer, goiter, and
cretinism; but, as already pointed out in Chapter II, no satisfactory
proof has ever been established. One must conclude that within
reasonable limits there is little to choose between a hard and soft
water for drinking purposes, although a change from a soft water to a
hard, or _vice versa_, usually produces temporary derangements.

_Loss of soap._

For washing purposes the value of a soft water is more marked. When a
hard water is used, a certain amount of soap is required to neutralize
the hardness before the soap is effective, and this takes place at the
rate of about 2 ounces of soap to 100 gallons of water for each part of
calcium carbonate per gallon, or about 3 ounces of soap to 10,000
gallons for each part per million increase in hardness.

The village of Canisteo, New York, has a hard spring water, the hardness
being recorded by the State Department of Health as 162.8 parts calcium
carbonate in a million parts of water. Clifton Springs water has a
hardness of 208. Catskill, New York, which gets its water from a stream
running down from the hillside, has a hardness of 22.1 or 140.7 parts
less than Canisteo. Mr. G. C. Whipple says ("Value of Pure Water") he
has found that 1 pound of soap is needed to soften 167 gallons of water
when that water has a hardness of 20 parts per million, and that each
additional part requires 200 pounds of soap to soften a million gallons.
If Clifton Springs and Catskill should each use 100,000 gallons per day,
the additional cost of the hard water, at five cents a pound for soap,
would be 20 x 140.7 x 0.05 = $140.70, provided all the village water
were neutralized with soap. Pr