The Portland daily press., 1865-09-04
UNION NOMINATIONS
EVILS OF rMPURp wAqHR.


water. or to set riD any hydrooathic mode Of
treatment FIR ;ts readers, but as one OF the
people we feel that the question: OF pure wafer
for the supply of the city, involves consider
ations weiobtier and vastly more important
tban tboae ofnere dollars and cents. Men can
no more live without water than without air.
Tho-e who try to do soby substituting whiskey
or any other beverage, do not run far in that
direction before their friends become convinced,
even though they may not themselves, that
they have attempted a dangerous If not fatal
experiment. ~
The human lungs are incapable of constant
initiation with impure air, without register
ing the bad effects in various forms of disease.
So, too, impure water, constantly taken into
the stomach, will tell upon the 'house we live
ill.," and sooner or later bring it into a bad
state, requiring costly and often painful re-
pairs; frequently into such state that the re-
pairing will cost more than the. shattered edi-
flee Is worth
TIE forms Of disease produced by impure
impure water, or directly or indirectly traca-1
be to its use, are numerous, and we do not pae-
tend to sufficient knowledge to give even then
names. One class only viii we reser Is here
and that is the class of calculus diseases; the
Development Of hard or solid lconcretlons in
different parts Of the body, as stone in the
bladder and kidneys, producing the most pain
full forms of disease, and remedied, if at all,
only by painful if not dangerous operations.
Then there are gallstones, called hillary cal
cului, and there may be dispositions of this
hard, cfusty substance in other parts of the
body. Sometimes persons deficient in phy--
iolUyicl klow1elye, wlsn they have read of
the removal of these formations, or of the
passage of gal-stones, have wondered Show
on earth" such solid masses of foreignmatter
could find their way into the secret cham
ber5 OF the body. They have been unable to
com 9reae1d how lime and potash and slick
and we know not what, in quite large and
solid masses, could get down the throat, or il
smagglel into the stomach how tliey could
WORK tlrou "a the pylorus and thesmall ducts
and find their way into such recesses as they
are often detected in by the eye Of science.
ALI this mystery dissolves when it is remem-
bered that these hard substances may take
eca,er passage to the interior organs in other
words, that they may go into the system in
the water used for drink, being held in solution
Like salt, sugar or any other soluble substance.
III any good housewife has doubts on this
point, viii she please lift the lid Of her empty
TIA kettle, IN which "hard water has been
sometime used, and explain the formation of
that hard, gritty crust waich is found lining
the interior surface. She knows very well the
neatness Of her own habits, that she never
puts water into that sacred vessel without in
specting it to see that it is perfectly clean, and
she would scold Bridget if she found her fill
ling it In the dark, or turning water in from
the pail without carefully looking into every
diopsrful to see that no bug, struggling fly or
other foreign body found its way into the place
wlere the first process towards tea-making is
commenced; and yet with all her care, and
with everything excluded from the tea-kettle
except the pure [ y water from her own well
IA wen from which she and her ancestors
have drunken as long as did the Patriarch and
his line from the well of Samaria- she finds its
whole interior covered with this dirty-looking,
grAyish, hardened cement, like thin paste of
putty and sand hardened into rocki How
caneit there2 4tga ,a9aiw sagaf4 4. :
Use new tin tea-kettle, putting in nothing
bat filtered rain water and no such deposit is
found. The tin surface may rust and discolor
the water, but no deposition is found upon the
b)ttom and sides. 1t Is only the spure" hard
water that affords such a deposit, and with
such water the deposit is inevitable. Some
housewives put an oyster shell in the teakettle
to remedy the eva, but the only effect is to at
tract the deposition to ITSELF rot to prevent it,
AMI the shell viii soon look like a ba nacle of
the last century. 14ss-9 -
The steamboiler in which hard water is us
Ell needs frequent scaling. In fact the COM
mon small flue boiler-the most economical
fof ordinary use-cannot be used with such
water, because of its effect upon the interior of
tie small fues, which cannot be got at to
remove the difficulty. Hence the need OF
pure water for steam manufacturing purpo-
ses. - f'fdA1 -91iaA
Now when the water used by seven-eighths
OF our people produces such results in the tea
kettle and steam boiler, why should it not pro-
dace hard deposits in the human system?
Who needs any other hypothesis to explain
the class Of diseases to which we have refer
red, the calculus in the kidneys, gall-bladderg
&C.? But for the neutralizing effect of other
things taken into the system, and the tendency
OF the animal economy to resist disease in all
it, forms, the constant usa of such water
would produce these diseases in all who use it,
just as surely as the exclusive use Of salt pro-
visions. without anti-scorbutics, produces sour
w and other scorbutic diseeaseS
But we stop here, and ask the reader who
loves life and health, to think of these sug-
gestions in their important relations to the
wa5er question now being agitated in our city.
1t will be found to be of vastly more importance
than is dreamed Of in the philosophy which
has ruled our city for the last quarter of a CEN
tury. Q i! - Va BAL
MIR. WEBB ON THE NEGRO QuEsrro,r