Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-02
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Rated the value to the body of water.
We know, as a matter of theory, that
our bodies are two-thirds water. and
what we call sssolid food is really
more than half water, but we seldom
realize either fact. Still less do we
concern ourselves about the quality of
the water we drink. Most of us when
thirsty 90 to the well and drink, if in
the country, or turn the water-faucet
and draw from the pipes, if we are in
the city. In neither case do we think
of the purity of the water, provided it
be palatable. We do not want chemi-
cally pure water, in fact. Whoever has
tasted of distilled water, chemically
pure, knows that it is quite insipid, and
a hearty draught of it would be likely
to produce nausea. A certain addition
of salts and other mineral matter is nee
essary to make the water acceptable to
the taste.
Nor does health demand the drinking
of chemically pure water. There are
no more healthful waters than those of
certain mineral springs, but those wa
tiers are exceedingly impure chemically.
A single gallon contains several grains
of mineral substances in solution, and is
highly charged with carbonic acid be-
sides. Water may be very impure, ac-
cording to the chemists analysis, and
yet be exceedingly healthful it may be
bright and sparkling, with scarcely a
trace of impurity, and yet deadly as a
poison. Inorganic matter is, as rule,
quite harmless, but the least trace Of Or
ganic matter is dangerous. 1t is well
established that certain diseases are pro-
duced by the growth of minute
germs which are introduced into
the body and propagated there
as yeast propagates itself in flour. These
germs are sometimes introduced through
the atmosphere, as in yellow fever; in
others they are introduced through
drinking water, as typhoid fever. In
others both causes seem to work, as in
cholera, but in these the water is surer
and deadlier poison than the air. Chills-
and-fever may be produced by breathing
a malarial air, but they will be made
certain by drinking water infected with
malarial germs.
This being the case, it is evident that
pure water-pure by the hygienic rather
than by the chemical standards one
of the things which people should be
most careful to secure for themselves.
Yet it is a thing of which most of us are
least careful. And it must be confessed
that the securing of it is by no means an
easy task. In the country it is COM
paratively easy thing to get. Pure water
may be secured once for all from a good
we'll, one into which no surface water
can drain, and kept at sufficient dis
for ooc-noo1c ofJ
BILE sources of contamination. But ga
sufficient distance is much greater
than most people imagine. The trouble
is, pains enough are not taken to pre-
vent surface water and organic matter
from entering the well, and the result is
frequent malarial and typhoid fevers, or
choleraic diseases. The recent epidemic
in North Adams, Mass, of a choleraic
disease, is now known to have been the
result of an almost universal drinking
of impure water. In cities, the task is
not so easy They are dependent either
on water formed by melting ice, or
on water brought through aqueducts
and pipes from long distances If
the ice has been formed on pure water,
it furnishes the most healthful drinking
ing water to be had in large cities. But
if formed on water in which there is
considerable organic matter-on a large
river like the Hudson, for example, into
which the sewers of many cities empty
it contains enough of these organic
substances to make it very dangerous to
health. The Croton water of New York
is as pure as could be expected, yet it is
not absolutely safe to drink, especially
at certain seasons. What increases the
difficulty is that science has been able to
provide no way of filtering out these Or
ganic matters They are SO small as
not to be distinguishable by the micro
scope, and the clearest water may be
charged with them. The only way to
make water absolutely safe to drink is
to boil it. These germs that are so dead
ly to human life can not survive a heat
of 212o Fahrenheit. Any one who will
take the trouble to drink only water
that has been previously boiled may be
absolutely certain of never contracting
any disease through the water he may
drink
This involves trouble, to be sure, but
it is trouble tina. is well worth taking,
in view of the prevalence of diseases
that are propagated mainly or entirely
through the water that people drink.
Half the disease in the world is pre-
ventible by the exercise of a little fore
thought and precaution. We do not go
so far as the English physician who de-
clares that all disease is sinful, but a
great deal of it is certainly sinful, be-
cause its existence is an unnecessary
evil.-Eranainer and Chronicle.