The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-06-08
WATER WE DRINK
Reasons Why the Greatest Cau-
ton Should be Observed.
AN ANALYSIS is NECESSARY
Prof Talmage on the Chemical Examination
of the Waters of Liberty Park
"A Good Idea.
AN ANALYSIS is NECESSARY
For THE SUNDAY HERA1p.l

For THE SUNDAY HERALD.
l note with pleasure the favorable action
of the city council on the petition of GER
tain citizens asking that chemical exam
ination be made on the potable waters OF
Liberty park. 1t is a strong probability |
that the park already named will remain
for long time the chief of its kind within
our city. At the present time hundreds Of
visitors and pleasure seekers may be seen
within its confines on almost any day dur
ng the warmer months, and the waters OF
the park are drunk daily by scores.
The Importance of purity in drinking
water is now generally recognized among
all thinking people. The united testimony
of medical and chemical investigation sup
ports the statement that the drinking of
impure water is among the most effective
causes of the spread of disease. Prof.
Edison, of New York, well-known
authority upon such matters, has declared
his belief that fully 80 per cent. of the
cases of cholera are attributable to infec-
ton through the medium of drinking water.
We well may inquire as to the nature of
these Impurities.
Chemically pure water does not exist as
a natural occurrence on the earth; such
liquid cannot be found outside of the
chemists laboratory, and, speaking in a
strictly technical sense, perhaps never
even there. The universal contamination
of natural waters is due to the great sol
vent power possessed by water, it being
able to dissolve varying quantities of al
most everything with which it comes in
contact. Look on the inside of tea kettle
that has done fair service for time; in
stead of the smooth, hard surface of the
metal of which the vessel is constructed, a
rough, friable coating, usually of a gray
: ish color is discernable. This consists, in
fact, of the solid matters which at one
time were dissolved in the water that has
been placed in the kettle. The water prob
ably dissolved the material from the soil
through which it percolated; and during
the boiling process and the evaporation
consequent to such, the liquid deposited its
! solid ingredients within the kettle. Similar
deposits are frequently found within the
boilers of steam engines, and there they
: cause great detriment. The problem of
preventing such, and the labor of removing
| the sulids, if once deposited, are great un-
dertakingS.
Such solid substances as have been al
. ready referred to give to water the quail
l ity of hardness, which, briefly defined, is
the power of water to destroy soap with
out producing perceptible lather.
All natural waters are more or less hard,
n though many of them may be greatly i'm
@ proved in this respect by boiling, through
. which process much of the solid matter is
a precipitated from solution, as seen in the
case of the tea-kettle The softest water
;, known is such as has been distilled. Distil-
: lation consists of boiling the water and in
condensing the escaping steam by means
lOf ct,ita n
= tents will thus be left behind in the boiler,
and the receiver will contain a liquid prac-
tically free from such.
Rain water may be regarded as naturally
! distilled water; under the influence of the
u SUMS heat, vapor rises from the moist sur
IT face of the earth, from the lakes, rivers
n and oceans; these vapors reach the upper
a layers and there partly condensed, assum
ing the form of clouds land these, when fully
condensed under the influence of cold, dis
charge their liquid contents as rain, snow
IS hail, or sleet Rain water caught in an
IL open space if the atmosphere has beer
Y. cleansed by previous showers, is fairly
pure, perhaps almost absolutely free from
. solid ingredients, but containing, in thu
most of cases, considerable quantities o.
dissolved gases. Though rain water O.
this description is comparatively pure, i
produces the sensation of insipid taste, be
* cause we have become so thoroughly accus
r.
~, But we are most interested, at present, il
y, the effect of impure water upon the healt
)" of its consumers From ten to twent
grains of solid matter in gallon Of waite
w would be regarded as very ordinar
H. n; amount for the potable waters OF thi
uo region; and even double such quantit
nj would not be necessarily injurious t
d. health, if the dissolved matters be in then
NJ selves innocuous. An extensive amount G
solid contents, giving to the water hig
degree of hardness, would be likely
ar prove detrimental; the i'll effects nantes
tic ing themselves within the human system
IL upon the kidneys and their connections.
IL The impurities most to be feared in drinl
IS, ing waters, however, are of an organ1
nc nature-the products of vegetable an
lis animal decay. And why are such sui
Il stances iniurious2 Most of our food is
I'm an organic nature; in a single mouthful {
I'm beef we take into the body more organ
ed substance than is contained in many ga
cr. Ions of the foulest water. The organ
s un impurities of water, however. are the pr
m ducts of actual decomposition, and they fu
an nish most fertile field for the develop
he ment and rapid increase of germs
by disease. 1t is easy TO understand, the
70 how the hacilh of cholera, for exampl
,,sG' may reach the ground from the body of Il
nm cholera suffer, and be carried thence by u
percolatiug waters into the liquid ctIrren
int beneath the surfac e. and there multiplyir
he with their well-known though rniraculol
ei- raridity, speedily infect the water supp
ot OF the entirG region.
Dr. The extreme view promulgated by SOD
that organic impurity in water may
me Itself originate specific forms Of diseases
mp is hardly tenable in the light of recent il
=, vestigatipn; such a case would be star
' 1 lug example Of spontaneous generation,
IN, the development Of living beings from Sd
yer stances already dead; and case of th
hiud has never been discovered Impr
Of water viii aid in the spread, but not III Il
ire origination OF disease germs. Yet it is
Nv yond doubt that the drinking Of foul wat
tor. renders the human body readily suscept
and BILE to disease The Importance of pu
water in it's effects upon tie health of I
No: drinkers can scarcely be ovcr-stated, a
OF absolute ignorance Of the subject m
~ ~ usually be traced to wilful and thoughtie
neglect. Such negligence, however, m
and bear fatal fruit.
per- The writer has made numerous analys
of waters from this city and from 9th
,S OF parts of the territory, and he finds RENAL
e sno able differences in the degrees oil who
sitb someness of this Indispensable liqu
Many Of the artesian wells, with which Il