The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-09-11

don 50 For the disinfection Of water and the
removal Of dangerous organic impurity, I have
1scerrained by experiment that the hest treatment
Is fret to filter tie water through animal charcoal.
and then to boil it for 4 few minutes. 1t may
then be safely drunk.
But Is there no possible or probable means Of
obtaining a purer supply Of water for the city,
or must we be condemned to go on forever in this
way 50 evidently dangerous to the public health?
The subject has been quite thoroughly ventilated
in this and other newspapers. but nothing has
come Of it. Government is quite apathetic, and
makes no movement towards remejying the evil.
The well-known cattle pasture above the reservoir
continues 10 be the laboratory through which
comes our universal ~tincture. Even the water
courses that run into the main feeder Of the res
erVoir are, according to a correspondent, neglected
and choked with mud and decaying vegetation.
and the writer asks elf government has not
the inclination or the means TO attend 10 the
publication Of the water that we drink and for
which we pay so handsomely, would it not be
well for the citizens to subscribe a fund and pay
some one who Will do it?'' We give the sugges-
ton but without endorsing it. This community
is already sufficiently taxed for water privileges
- Dr"A% lA'INA tCAAhAD ttt 2OhfAi LiItiitt
the average annual receipts to the Treasury from
this source having been about SO, 900, over and
above current expenses. Thus the public, that
contributes this sum, has the undoubted right to
demand of those at the head of the government n
reform in this matter Of water supply. Reform
is urgently needed, and it is perfectly practicable.
In connection with this subject we have been
asked whether it is n fact that the presence of
living organisms in ID drinking water is necessarily
injurious to health. In reply we quote from the
late DIR. Daubeny, a famous British naturalist
and chemist, who says = 1T is 4 mistake 10
suppose that the water. because it contains ami
malcules or conferVe, is necessarily unwholesome.
However repugnant to our feelings it may be to
use water containing these foreign bodies, 1T is
only when they are dead and putrid that danger
arises from their presence" With us the ques-
ton therefore arises, do these interesting creatures
die in their passage through the pipes? An
appeal to the microscope of our new society
(whenever it arrives) may solve the question.
AND SPEAKING of the microscope in our
reading we recently came upon the following
eloquent thoughts on the subject, from CASTRO
nomical Discourses,' . by Chalmers:
But about the time of its invention (the tele-
scope) another instrument was formed, which
laid open n scene no less wonderful, and rewarded
the inauisitive spirit Of man with n discovery
which serves to neutralize the whole of this argu-
ment. This was the microscope. The one led
me to see q system in every star the other leads
me to see Il world in every atom. The one taught
me that this mighty globe, with the whole
burden Of its people and its countries, is but Il
grain Of sand on the high field of immensity the
other teaches me that every grain of sand may
harbor within it the tribes and families of busy
population. The one told me of the insignificance
of the world I'tread upon the other redeems it
from all it's insignifcance FOR it tells me, that in
the leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of
every garden, and in the waters of every rivulet,
there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless
as are the glories of the armament. The one has
suggested to me, that beyond and above all that
is visible to man, there may lie fields of creation
which sweep immensely along, ami carry the inn
press 0fthe Almighty's hand to the remotcst scenes
Of the universe the other suggests to me, that
within and beneath all that minuteness which
the aided eye of man has been able to explore,
there may be Il region of inVisibles; and that,
could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which
shrouds it from our senses, we might then see a
theatre of as mighty wonders rs astronomy has
unfolded, Il universe within the compass of Il
point SO small as to elude all the powers of the
microscope, but where the woodworking God
finds room for the exercise of all his attributes,
where he can raise another mechanism Of worlds,
and fill and animate them all with the evidence
of his olOrv3