The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-01 00:00:00

TO PREVENT POISONING BY LEAD PIPES.

Few persons have become the occupants of a new house
without some serious charge against the builder, on the
score of drains ; the architect, as to the sanitary or other
mal-arrangements of the premises ; or, failing to trace to
either of these personages the cause of some sickness that
has seized them, they decry the constitution; or, if some
sage friend has been consulted, and finds the situation
favourable as to the four winds, the substratum is referred
to ; and then, if clay be the obnoxious foundation, even the
pulling down of the house is pronounced useless, as giving
no remedy against existing evil, which has been attributed
to so many imaginable causes.
Of all the departments, the plumber's is the least sus-
pected. He goes scot free: for if there be an abundance
of water, what blame can attach to him ? We do not say
that blame as yet does attach to him, but we confidently
assert that the cause of the evil is often found in his depart-
ment. That metal which is se pliant under his hands, and
cau be so easily moulded to his will—with its bright clear
race, that seems as if it would throw back with indignation
any charge of poisoning, is the culprit after whom the
whole house has been in search, In time the hunters aro
worn out in the chase; and having passed the worst mat-
ters begin to mend ; not so much from acclimatisation, as
the victims suppose, but from the pipes having changed
their faces from a laden hue to one more white; not, in-
deed, paled from sorrow at the mischief they have done, but
from falling in with some companion, who has tarried, and
in whose society the metal is so engrossed, as to cease to
exercise a poisonous and deleterious influence over our own.
To those who have not been able to follow our analogy,
let us sum up in clearer words.
Lead is soluble in pure water. A solution of lead is highly
poisonous. There are cases in which pure water, drawn
through leaden pipes or from leaden cisterns, has carried a
sufficiency of lead in solution to poison a whole family.
But a plea of exemption may arise from those who have
not pure water. To such we would reply—lmpure water
coats the lead, in process of time, with the white film
of a carbonate of the metal, which is insoluble, with ex-
ceptions ; one being the presence of water containing car-
bonic acid. Such water, in passing through the carbonate
of lead, takes up an equivalent of the same, which equiva-
lent may be sufficient to cause distinguishable colic, or set
up a non-traceable source of indisposition through a whole
family. We now approach the termination of our summary
by answering a query that may be put by some sceptics.
How is it, after all, some lead pipes do not poison water ?
It arises from the fact that old age has wrought a change for
the better in their disposition ; for when water impregnated
with sulphur salts has for a long time passed through leaden
pipes, or has long acted on leaden cisterns, the lead becomes
coated with a sulphate or a sulphide ; and sulphide of lead,
being perfectly insoluble in pure water, and equally so ill
water not too excessively charged with foreign matters to
be potable, renders the leaden vehicle perfectly harmless,
and thus perfects it for the duties which in all other respects
it performs in such a utilitarian manner. But we WO a,
moral to append to our subject. Aro we to wait content
to be poisoned until our pipes become transmuted, or watt
aro we to do ? The remedy is said now to bo eaaqstof
tainable without waiting. Dr, Schwarz, a ell_e;;_,,nly
Breslau, has made a discovery that cannot be too p„.
esteemed in a sanitary point of view, which is, the
the me-
sing a hot solution of the sulphide of potassfiruora
leaden pipes, the interior face is transmutedutes,
at a cost
Yoewit scientific truths ;
tallic state to that of a sulphide in a few
hide of the nexioua
echseaeratchtaetr
rievipee and cisterns be no
Intl:: need tolifmsuomgbe
too insignificant to mention. If, shown an
change of our water conduit be satisf
salvos)),
and the change
galena,
tel 1.:t3 aby
supportall meansth
we have endeavoured to do this for
o
proposed is based ou equally well-kasai
if water in the mines ofrgaatele,
metal, be drunk with impunitY,
for the future, at any
longer silent poisoners, bat deserves, of uftful aUxiliarieS
they have hitherto not fully life.
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Commence at 7.