Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-27

Water May Sparkle Like the Crys-
tai and Yet be Most Impure.
BOILING ALONE ISN'T ENOUGH.
1t Only Makes a Soup With the Dead
Organisms for the Body.
TESTS AT THE CARNEGIE LABORATORY
WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPArcH.1

necessities of life, and must be obtainsd il
a flne development is desired. Fresh air.
pure water, bathing, hygienic diet and
self-control contain the fundamental prin-
ciples of true religion.
1t is well established on the best medical
authority that 10000 people die in the
United States yearly from typhoid fever. of
which the majority of cases are communi-
Gated through drinking water. Other
diseases directly caused by impure water
are collie. erysipelas sore throat, constipa-
tion, gastritis, pneumonia, dysentery, liver
and skin diseases, dyspepsia and general
debility.
Most of the water used falls far short Of
purity and safety. That from streams and
lakes must carry the wash of shore and de-
caylng vegetable and animal ma tier, not
sufhcient to make it positively unpleasant
always, but quite enough to furnish the
germs OF dangerous ailments, and the fer
tllzlng medium Tor these to develop in
their worst forms. The water from tanks
and clsterns can only be kept sweet and saI
Dy constant care and is seldom fit to use as
it leaves the faucet. The viscid, slimy
lining of water pipes, deposited from the
water standing in them, not only contains
organic matter-that is, living, microscopic
anlmals-but produce them.
IF WE COULD ONLY SEE THEM.
No water which deposits a Shiny coating
on pals and pitchers by standing is safe for
drinking or cooking. Were the microsco pc
as common as the thermometer and as fire.
quently referred to it would not be neces-
sary to demonstrate the necessity of pure
water. No one could taste infected water
after once seeing the horrid forms with
which 1t swarms in their malignant shapes
types OF the evi! they accomplish, infnitesi-
NAL demons of the air and water. 1t is we'll
they are lid from our ewes or existence
would be organized nightmare. But these
malignant presences abound, seen or un-
seen, and it is time to lay aside all other
considerations to learn how to preserve our
selves from them.
Experiments testing the purity of drink
ing water under various conditions have
lately occupied the first chemists and physi-
clans here and abroad, and will be found
most valuable and instructive reading,
Town libraries and doctors should provide
themselves with the reports of Prof. Angel,
of Derry, N. H., to the State Board Of
Health; OF Mr. Frankland, to the Royal
Society of England, and Dr.. Charles G.
Currier on his experiments with drinking
water in the laboratories Of Berlin and the
Carnegie Laboratory of New York city.
Probably no result of his great wealth is Of
more public benefit or more credit to the
many milllcned man whose name it bears
than the new and we'll equipped laboratory
for experiments relating to health which
neighbors Bellevue Hospital and Medical
School. DIR. Currier enumerates the most
distressful scourges among diseases caused
by bacteria in impure drinking water season
alter season, to which cause is traced such
"ine1cusable epidemics" as the recent out
break of typhoid fever at Cumberland, on
the Potomac.
SOME OF THE PRECAUTIONS.
The truth is gradually gaining currency
that it is in general safest to consume water
and milk like other foods-after cooking
them. Even water charged with carbonic
acid gas, for soda fountains, usually and
rightly regarded as preferable Tor purity to \
ordinary water, allows certain kinds of bac-
terra to increase in water charged with gas
under pressure OF over 100 pounds to the
square inch. AS original bacteria perish
more rapidly in soda waters, when charged,
than in simple water, this affords a resource
in case the general supply for drinking is
inferior in sickly seasons. A small addi-
tion of alcohol or spirits also prevents in
furious results from bad water, but cannot
always be depended on to destroy germs of
disease, unless in stronger proportion than
is pleasant to most tastes.
Boiling most effectually destroys the
germs if the heat is kept up long enough.
1t has been said In medical journals that
10 minutes boiling was enough to purify
even infected water. Doubtful of this fact,
DR.. Currier made over 30 careful expert
ments at the Carnegie Laboratory, besides
series at the Health institute in Berlin. To
remove sediment and vet have the micro
the bacteria, the harmful germs
remain In the water, it was strained through |
thin layers of sand Or absorbent cotton. |
This proves at once thefmistake of suppos- |
ing that small plug filters to screw on fau- |
,ets are of any material use in purifying |
water, or that ordinary layers of cotton bat
ing Will keep fermenting germs out of pre-
served fruit. It is demonstrated that water
may be entirely clear and yet swarm with
'he living seeds of fever.
A TEN MINUTES BOILING.
The germs of tubercular diseases-that is,
killed by 10 minutes
polling. The typhoid bacilli and the pro-
iucing kinds are harmless when the water
las been brought to the boiling point and
allowed to cool slowly. Cholera germs are
TILL more sensitive. DR.. Currier concludes
hat water whose purity is suspected be-
,omes harmless when boiled 10 minutes.
From many tests he thinks the bacteria of
rdinary clear hydraDt water are DESTROYED
n this time, though the Berlin Professor
Koch disagrees with this opinion. DR.. Car
legle ADDED putrefying solutions OF meats,
Tegetaoles, and earths to produce the worst
IosslDie waters, and found, after straining
hem, tnat the bacteria rarely resisted 20
minutes boiling, though one tough variety
,ept alive from 45 to go minutes while
oiling.
In the stomach and intestines these bac-
era taken in drinking water increase enor-
lousIy. giving off great amounts of foul
ases and other noxious products. 1t is in
eresting, says DR.. Currier, to find a typi-
ally skillful modern surgeon. Pro. II.
'rltsch, OF Breslau, announces that water
nth only six to one thousand solution of
ommon salt, sterilized by long boiling, is
reIeraole to the carbolic and corrosive sub
mate solutions continually used for the
lost delicate and hazardous operations.
MUST NOT STOP AT BOILING.
But boiling does not wholly fit impure
ater to be the ideal drink. Still, more
areful and rigid experiment proves that
oiled water swarming with dead bacteria is
tile better than beef tea or broth of mi
roscoplc flesh, none too wholesome at best
nd liable to speedy change, which makes
undesirable for the human system. The
tier comes in play to strain out these dead
nimalcula, inconsiderable in themselves,
ut able to putreiy in time and give the
ater foul taste.
L. I. Frankland recently reports to the