ath July.
Axsono the numerous forms of water-filter to the use of which the resident of the Far East is in a chronic bondage, is one which is a combination of a suction-pump and force-pump. There are two parallel tubes joined, in one of which is fitted a piston, the raising of which draws the water into its cylinder through a ball-valve. By pressing down the piston, the water 1s now driven into the other tube, into which is inserted a filter cylinder like a thick candle, which seems to be composed of some form of compressed mineral, The water having nowhere elss to go, is forced through the pores of the filter cylinder, emerging through a nickeelplated tube in a stream of pure water the size of a lead-pencil. By means of this invention, which is packed in a tin case useful for sterilization, the traveller who arrives at an oriental mud-hole has only to screw on a tube (fitted with a stirrup to give pressure by the foot), insert the suction end of his tube in the water, pull and push the piston a sufficient number of times, and he is provided with the required amount of "germproof" water, pure and wholesome! This is one of those modern triumphs of mind over matter (supposing it to work as represented) which are characteristic and indeed representative of what we mean by civilisation. Distillation with its wearisome delays and its insipid products is dispensed with altogether. Theoretically all that one needs is the mud-hole, a cup, and the filter, and the results are speedy, sure, and satisfactory.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.