The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-08-15
Correspenleree.


There is 1t present no sanitary subject
Of more general interest, or one that
should attract more general attention,
than that relating to the abundance and
wholesomeness of domestic water supply.
Each citizen of densely populated
municipality must of necessity be per
sonally interested in either its physiolog-
ical or it's financial bearing, or both.
Each closely settled town and city must
give the subject earnest consideration
early in it's existence. 20
Ifa quantity Of pure water isseparated
chemically, it will be found to contain
two parts, one Of which weighing one
ninth as much as the whole will he
hydrogen, and the other oxygen; OF if
the parts of the same quantity be desig-
mated by volume, two parts will be n.y.
drogen and one part oxygen.
These two gasses in just these proper
tions, have entered simultaneously into
q wonderful union, the mystery Of which
the human mind has not yet fathomed;
in fact many years Of intense intellectual
labor Of the most profound investigators
the world has ever known, were con-
sumed before the discovery Of the pro-
portions of the two gases that were
capable of entering into this mystic
union. $500
1.-two volumes of oxygen arc presented
to two volumes Of hydrogen, one only of
the oxygen volumes will be capable of
entering the union, and the other will
only be diffused through the compound
az oxygen.
FIN q running brook lump Of rock
salt is placed, the current will flow around
it, and the water will attack it, and will
dissolve some of its particles, and they
will be dlffdsed through the whole stream
below. A like effect results when a
stream flows across vein of salt in the
earth. In like manner if water meets
in its passage over OF through the earth,
magnesium, potassium, aluminium, iron,
arsenic, or otherof the metallic elements,
it dissolves apart of them and they are
difused through it as impurities. In
like manner if water in its passage
through the air, as in showers, meets
nitrogen, carbonic acid, or other gasses,
they are absorbed and diffused through
it as impurities.
Both oxygen gas and hydrogen gas,
when pure, are colorless, and have
neither taste nor smell. Water as result
of this combination, when pure, is trans
parent, tasteless, inodorous and colorless,
except when seen to considerable depth.
The solvent powers of water exceed
those of any other liquid known, and it
has an extensive range of infnities. This
is why it is almost impossible to secure
water free from impurities, and why
almost every substance known in nature
enters into solution in water. When We
remember that seventy-five per cent. of
our whole body is constituted of the
elements of water, that not less than
ninety-fve per cent. of our healthy blood,
and not less than eighty per cent. of our
food is also of water we readily acknowl-
edge the important part it plays in our
very existence. @ @ite
Water is directly and indirectly the
agency that dissolves our foods and sep
arates them, and the vehicle by which
the appropriate parts are transmitted to
the body. When the stomach is in
healthy condition, nature calls for water
in just the required amount through the
sensation, thirst. Good water then reg
ulatcs the digestive fluids. Through, the
agency of perspiration it assists in reg
ulating the heat of the body; it cools a
feverish blood; and it allays a painting
thirst more cffectually than can any fcl-
mented liquor. Water is no less essen
tial for the regulation Of all the organs of
motion, of sight, of hearing and of reason.
than ie the invigorating atmosphere that
ever surrounds us, to the maintenance of
the beating of the heart.
The human stomach and constitution
become toughened in time 80 as to resist
the pernicious effects of GER
tain of the milder noxious impurities in
water, but such impurities have effect
though sometimes 80 grad
ually that their real influence is not rec
ognized until the whole constitution has
or perhaps has been almost
destroyed.
Note the effect of few catnip leaves
into drinking water, which will
act through the water upon the nerves;
and 80 various vegetable and mineral
solutions act upon various portions of the
body.
It would be fortunate if the various
pernicious impurities in water affected
only matured constitutions, but they act
with more deplorable effect in the help
lessness of youth. These impurities
silently but steadily derange the diges-
tive organs, destroy the healthy tone Of
the system, and, bring the living tissues
into condition peculiarly predisposed
to attack by malignant disease.
The purest natural waters upon the
face of the earth are usually those which
come down in natural streams from
granite hills; but if a thousand such
streams are carefully analysed, not one
of them will be found to be wholly free
from some admixture. A United States
gallon of water weighs nearly sixty
thousand grains. Such waters IS physi-
clans usually pronounce good portable
waters have from one to eight of these
uro;nc vai0hf in each gallon of certain