| Sample | TOTAL SOLIDS. | MATTER, ORGANIC & VOLATILE. | CHLORINE. | PERMAN- GANATE TEST. | ALBUMINOID AMMONIA. | FREE AMMONIA. | REMARKS. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gramme | Gramme | Gramme | Drops | Gramme | Gramme | ||
| 1. | 0.81 | .09 | .11 | 30 | .0024 | ???? | Very bad. |
| 2. | 1.061 | .179 | .06 | 24 | .00015 | .00009 | Suspicious. |
| 3. | 1.26 | .29 | .115 | 38 | ???? | ???? | Very bad. |
| 4. | 0.94 | .131 | .093 | 22 | ???? | ???? | Bad. |
| 5. | 0.89 | .055 | .032 | 11 | .00009 | .00001 | Suspicious. |
| 6. | 0.964 | .098 | .08 | 15 | .00011 | .00001 | Suspicious. |
| 7. | 0.798 | .178 | .104 | 28 | .00089 | .00005 | Very bad. |
| 8. | 0.37 | .025 | .049 | 12 | .0003 | .0004 | Suspicious. |
| NOTE: ???? means not obtained. | |||||||
In regard to the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of water, Watt’s Dictionary of Chemistry gives the following: “Water suitable for economical, technical or culinary purposes should not contain of solid constituents to exceed five-tenths of a gramme to one gramme per litre. Water containing one-tenth gramme per litre of organic matter is unfit for culinary purposes or drinking. Wholesome water should not contain of organic matter more than five-one thousanth to one one-hundredth gramme per liter. As a rule, water containing as much as one one-hundredth of a gramme of chlorine per litre may be suspected of being contaminated with drainage. Whenever in water the oxygen amounts to less than one-third of the nitrogen, and the water also causes a considerable reduction of permanganate of potash, the presence of decomposing organic substance is probable. The capability of water to remain for some days at a temperature of about 22°C, without undergoing decomposition is of great importance in reference to the question of wholesomeness.”
The permanganate of potash test given above was as follows: The test solution was distilled water, one litre, and permanganate of potash, one gramme. Of this solution, the number of drops required to render fifty cubic centimetres of the water under examination permanently red, were reported. It should be understood that the same quantity of distilled water required but eight drops of the test solution to become permanently red.
The first sample of water was taken from a well where fourteen persons were simultaneously attacked in December last by typho-malarial and diarrhœal diseases. All had been drinking water from this well, and had it not been for the timely help of the physician who condemned the water.
SERIOUS RESULTS WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED.
On examination the cess-pool was found to be connected directly with the well by a pipe, and when the cess-pool became full, its contents regurgitated into the well. The Board of Health examined the premises, condemned the well and ordered that both privy vault and cess-pool be cleaned out without delay. I understand that it is quite common in this city to connect the cess-pool with the well by a pipe so that the waste water may be readily conveyed away; but if people knew the danger to be feared from such an arrangement, greater care in the construction of drains would be exercised. Hundreds of cases might be related where in houses fitted with all that taste could desire, and gold procure, a siphoned trap, or in the absence of a trap, an imperfect joint, or an old brick drain, or riddled soil pipe, defects easily remedied if known to exist, have undermined the health of adults and slain the little ones. In the first sample a large quantity of animalculæ were revealed by the microscope. Fox states that “the existence of animal life in a water affords good evidence in itself of the presence of a very sensible amount of organic matter, alias filth. These little creatures feed and flourish on what we call organic matter, and in perfectly pure water they cannot live. A perfectly pure water contains no suspended matter nor any animal or vegetable life. The ova of the round and the thread worms, the eggs and joints of the tapeworm and small leeches, which may give rise to grave disorders, should not be forgotten in making microscopic examinations of drinking waters.”
Good water is both a necessity and a priceless blessing. Foul water is a scourge and a messenger of death. No one except a brute would hesitate which to choose if he could tell one from the other. It is only with the grosser pollution of water that chemists can apply their science. Infinitesimal pollution cannot be estimated by the skill of any chemist. It is the careful physician who decides more accurately in regard to the purity of water than the chemist. Sir Benj. Brodie in speaking of the detection of infinitesimal pollution says: “I think you have a much better chance of getting at these relations through accurate medical statistics, properly applied, than you have through chemical analysis, because chemical analysis is one of the poorest things possible to reach those delicate quantities. You cannot get at these small quantities at all; chemical analysis must be limited by our power of weighing and measuring. It may go on to a certain point, but we cannot go beyond that point.”
The well from which the second sample was taken, was within twenty-five feet of a privy vault twenty feet deep. Several families used water from the well. Two cases of
TYPHOID FEVER DEVELOPED
in one family, and all the persons who drank the water were constantly ailing. The third sample was taken from a well where four cases of typhoid fever had occurred. A thorough search had been made for the cause of the trouble. The well water had been suspected and was condemned by the attending physician.