Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-26
DEATH In THE WATER
Avoid Disease by Purifying What
You Drink.
DANGEROUS HIDDEN GERMS
boil and Filter water Before Drinking-
What Tests by Experts Have shown
How BacteriaCan be Easil Destroyed
Health Hints for the Summer Time.
for The EVENING star.

- URE water and pure air are the Arst
iNnecessities Of life, and must be OBJ
4 tanned if fine development il desired.
~ The state boards Of health and emil
~@N' nent professors in medical colleges are
making close study of the relation of water to
disease and the best modes Of securing the
purity OF drinking water. 1t il well estab-
llshed on the best medical authority that
thirty thousand people die in the United
states yearly from typhoid fever, Of which the
majority OF cases are communicated through
drinking water. Other diseases directly
caused by impure water are collie, erysipelas,
sore throat, constipation, gastr,tis, 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
shores and decaying vegetable and animal mat
ter, not sufficient to make it positively I'M
pleasant always, but quite enough to furnish
the germs of dangerous ailments, and the fer
tilIzing medium for these to develop in their
worst forms. How far the fearful ravages
of cancer and mysterious tumors are owing
to impure water and food is partially COM
pretended 1t is certain that with pure
blood and nourishment they would be
nearly impossible. The water from tanks and
cisterns can only be kept sweet and safe by
constant care and is seldom fit TO use as it
leaves the faucet. The viscid, Shiny lining Of
water pipes, deposited from the water stand
ing In them, not only contains organic matter
that is, living microscopic animals-but pro-
duces them. In the language of the labora-
tory it is the vehicle for their culture, in which
they breed and multiply. No water which de-
posts Shiny coating on pals and pitchers by
standing is safe for drinking or cooking. Were
the microscope as common the thermometer
and as frequently referred to it would not be
necessary to demonstrate the necessity of pure
water. No one could taste infected water after
once seeing the horrid forms with which it
swarms, in their malignant shapes types Of the
evil they OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES demons Of
the air and water. 1t is well they are hid from
our eyes or existence would be organized night
mare. But these malignant presences abound,
seen or unseen, and it is time to lay aside other
considerations to learn how to preserve our.
sci YES from them.
EPIDEMIC BREEDERS.
Experiments testing the purity Of drinking
water under various conditions have lately oc-
cupied the first chemists and physicians here
and abroad, and will be found most valuable
and instructive reading.
The truth is gradually gaining currency that
1t 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 for purity to ordinary water allows
certain kinds of bacteria to increase in water
charged with gas under q pressure of over 100
pounds to the square inch.
As original bacteria perish more rapidly in
soda waters when charged than in simple wa
ter, this affords a resource in case the general
supply for drinking is inferior in sickly sea-
sons A small addition OF alcohol or spirits
also prevents injurious 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.
HEAT KILLS THE GERMS
Boiling most effectually kills the germ II the
heat is kept up long enough. 1t has been said
in medical journals that fifteen minutes boil
ing was enough to purify even infected water.
Doubtful OF this fact, DIR. Currier made over
fifty careful experiments at the Carnegie labra-
tory. besides a series at the health institute in
Berlin. His hrst remarks is interesting to all
housekeepers.
To remove sediment and yet have the micro
organisms, the bacteria, the harmful germs re-
main In the water, it was strained through thin
layers Of sand or absorbent cotton. This proves
at once the mistake OF surprising that small
plug filters TO screw on faucets are of anv
material use in purifying water, or that ordi.
nary layers OF cotton batting will keen ferment-
ing germs out of preserved fruit. No hasty
or slight methods are enough to secure the
purity and keeping OF food or water. 1t is
demonstrated that water may be entirely clear
and yet swarm with the living seeds of fever
and other putrid diseases. Boiling DESTROYS
this microscopic life. The germs of tuber-
cular disease-that is. consumption-are killed
oy ten minutes boiling. The typhoid bacilli
and the pus producing kinds are harmless when
the water has been brought to the boiling
point and allowed to cool slowly. Cholera
germs are still more sensitive. DR.. Currier
concludes that water whose purity is suspected
becomes harmless when boiled ten minutes.
from many tests he thinks the bacteria of
ordinary clear hydrant water are DESTROYED in
this time, though the Berlin Prof Koch dis
agrees with him.
DESTROYING BACTERIA
In the experiments at the Carnegie labor atory
the water was strained and decanted into TASKS
plugged with cotton, lowered with a thread
round the necks into q steam sterilizer, which
by the combined use of a rose burner and
large Bunsen burner was kept at its highest
heat, 155 degrees centigrade. The TASKS were
steadily heated for thlrty-seven minutes. and
single ones withdrawn at intervals, leaving the
longest in one hundred and three minutes.
BI test it was found that living bacilli resisted
boiling up to seventy-two minutes when nore
were found alive. The TASKS were allowed to
cool gradually, then samples were tested after
one, seven aHu teH uhyS. Inc water retained
its heat SO long in the warm laboratory that
the bacteria lost their vitality before it cooled.
even in the flask steamed thirty-seyen minutes
In sample of the original water they multi
piled greatly, but none were found In the
boiled water. and solutions of steamed water
kept year, closely corked. were completely
free from animal germs, though other changes
took place.
In the stomach and intestines these bacteria
taken in drinking water increase enormously
giving off great amounts of foul gases and other
noxious products. Raising clear water, con-
tanning the micro organisms Of typhoid, chol-
era diphtheria or Of pus diseases, to the
boiling point and allowing it slowly to cool de-
stroys these germs. In case of surgical opera
tions or of wounds it is Of the first net essity to
have water absolutely free from all germs. as
the. heat may produce fatal Inflammation. Pass
ages in Hippocrates and Galen show that the
ancient Greeks valued pure boiled water and
also that to which salt was added and boiled
for cleansing Of wounds and surgery
But boiling does not wholly fit impure va
ter to be the ideal drink. Still, more careful
and rigid experiment proves that boiled water
swarming with dead bacteria is little better
than beef tea or broth of microscopic flesh
none too wholesome at best aud liable TO speedy
change, which makes it undesirable for the hu-
man system.
The water in this state = capable Of disas-
trous change.
USE OF THE FILTER.
The filter comes in play to strain out these
dead animalcul@, uncomfortable In themselves,
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