I don';t know what they teach them now, but soldiers used to be taught that you
can't drink any water you find without treating it first. Even in a cold clear
creek, you don't know what is upstream. Of course, as a child I drank from
streams all the time without ill effect. I just didn''t know any better. :>)


On Sep 30, 2014, at 3:40 AM, Michael Blair  wrote:

> Water had not been dependably safe to drink for centuries.
> In fact, it has been said that the whole of Europe lived in
> an alcoholic haze until the introduction of tea and coffee
> around the late 1500s.