"Pending the introduction of the copper treatment of water on a large scale, the householder may avail himself of a method for the purification of drinking water by the use of strips of copper foil about three and one-half inches square to each quart of water, this being allowed to stand overnight, or from six to eight hours at the ordinary temperature, and then the water drawn off or the copper foil removed."
Although a splendid antiseptic, copper in weak solution is not harmful, no more so than the old copper utensils used by our forefathers were harmful. Undoubtedly they were of benefit, and the use of them prevented the growth of typhoid and other bacteria. People of to-day might well go back to copper receptacles for drinking water.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For published reports of the work, see Bulletins 64 and 76, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture; reports prepared by Dr. George T. Moore and his assistant, Mr. Karl F. Kellerman.
[2] See Bulletin No. 76, supra.
CHAPTER IV
Ridding Stagnant Water of Mosquitoes
Because of the serious and often fatal injury it inflicts on man, the most dangerous animal known is the mosquito. Compared with the evil done by the insect pest, the cobra's death toll is small. This venomous serpent is found only in hot countries, particularly in India, while mosquitoes know no favorite land or clime—unless it be Jersey. Arctic explorers complain of them. In Alaska, it is recorded by a scientist that "mosquitoes existed in countless millions, driving us to the verge of suicide or insanity." A traveler on the north shore of Lake Superior, when the snow was several feet deep, and the ice on the lake five feet in thickness, relates that "mosquitoes appeared in swarms, literally blackening the banks of snow in sheltered places."