The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-07-20
PLEADING FOR PURE WATER
Costly Chemical Analyses Do Not Prove
that Water Is Necessarily Healthful.
Running Streams Abound in Impurities, and
the Water Can Only BE Made Wholesome
BY the Use of the Best Filters Made.

To the Editor Of the Indianapolis Journal:
Now that the City Board of Health and
the water company are industriously en-
gagged in again throwing chat into the eyes
OF the people with their numerous chemical
analyses of the city's drinking water, no
two of which come anywhere near agree
ing with each other, except on general
principles. in the inherent suspicion Of IN
portability. or, in plain words, untitness as
n human beverage. is it not permissible to
call attention to the fact that, after
all. chemistry has no inherent power
10 pronounce upon the noxious or pois-
onous character of a drug. water. foot or
any substance whateveri Its utility Is
practically limited 60 determining of what
mineral or element ong substance is CON-
posed, with the pre- ortions or quantities
thereof. 1t cannot for instance, tell US
that strychnine will act as a poison, mild
or violent, if taken into the human stom-
ach-that know ledge came to US through
the fearful and recorded experiences of
those who have been so unfortunate as to
have undergone them because they took
that poison into their stomachs. So, too.
with all the mineral-spring waters-the
proof of their efficacy is the using thereof,
not in the Spencerian or Martinsvillian
newspaper parade of their mineral constit-
uents. In like manner. it takes more than
the ammonia, trace column or other
historic formula of chemists analy-
sis to determine the wholesomeness of a
water intended for human beverage. And
will go further and declare that it Is not
possible for q chemist after examining q
water to authorltatively answer the all
important question, Is 1t wholesome or un-
wholesomef And the chemists know this
Just as well as do. but still stand ready to
"analyZe" all the specimens ted by
alarmed civilians or toO-contding officials.
For instance, fresh-caught rain-water.
which may be called the sewage of the at
mospbere, often contains far more ammonia
dreaded as proof of animal matter or ex-
crement) than a really dangerous stagnant
pond or river water. while the nitrogen dis
titled from water may have come from an
organic matter perfectly harmless or from
one virulently poisonous. Still more use
less and dangerous are all those analy ses in
which the chemist is kept in ignO-
rance of the source of the sam
pie under study, as is so often
done. Lest some uniformed criticiser
may feel like denying the soundness of my
declaration regarding the scope of chem
istry In water Investigations all are re-
ferred TO the 1882 report OF the National
Board of Health. wherein Professor Maii,t,
who made extensive investigations into
the methods of water analysis. says: ut is
not possible TO decide absolutely upon the
wholesOmeness or unwhOlesOmeness Of a
drinking water by the mere use of any of
the processes examined for the estimation
OF organic matter or its constituents" Or
take this from the most com plete and relia-
BILE work ever issued, the reference Hand
book of the Medical Sciences" costing $50,
where the author of the Water" article,
Prof. Charles Smart, after describing what
the chemist can do, says: But the imDor-
l. 3 -. T. -
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. positive an
swer from the records of the analyst 1t
should also be remembered that the term
purity" is a chemical term not at all
anonymous with the word wholesome"
RIVER WATER Is UNwHoLEsOME.
We but stultify our intelligence and
foolishly ignore the teachings of experience
when we pretend to doubt that river water
In a popuIous country can be anything but
unwholesome and dangerous as q beverage.
1t is continually carrying toward the sea
the tincture of decayiDg bodies, human,
animal, and fshy. large and small, favored
with extract of poisonous snakes and
insects. with frogs. rats. etc.. thrown in as
condiments. fortified with alge and all
sorts OF alluvlal and paludal drippings.
and tape-worm, malaria, dysentery, and
typhoid germs. Rivers are the natural
receptacles and conduits of the waste of
manufactures, slaughter-hOuses and laun-
dries, and OF the filth, refuse, waste, general
garbage. ottal and excrement of humanity
and it's brute servants, as we'll as houses,
hotels, sick-rooms and hospitals, ETC., to
cay nothing of decaying vegetation or Gem
etery seepage-all very well in their proper
places. but not in drinking water. There
are thousands of fine. haired people In this
city who could not be induced to dip their
bodies or hands in tub of water in which
any other person had bathed, but would I'M
hesitatingly drink the river water that had
recently done duty In the common wash
tub of animals and man alike, and in a
common sewer as well. And we present the
strange anomaly tonly IL IL not an anomaly
of drinking from and discharging into the
same water course, just as so many
other cities do. Can anyone say that the
picture is too strongly drawnf Why
blind our eyes to the factsi Certainly not
because they are "horrid."
We are told that rapId-running water
Will pretty we'll purify itself of all save dis
ease germs in several miles travel through
the agency of the oxygen absorbed by con-
tact with the air, chemical action and a
natural precipitation of sediment but this
presuppOses no further contamination dur
ing the process. contamination. in point
of fact, constantly going on. Indeed, the
English Rivers pollution commission paid
much attention to this publication claim,
and. after making many experimental in
Vestigatlons. reported that there was no
river IN the United Kingdom long enough
Co secure the oxidation and destruction of
any sewage which might be discharged into
1t even at it's source" We howl about tho
sources of contamination north OF town,
and 'analyze" the output. threatening to
prosecute the outputters, but 60 on adding
fearfully TO 1t with our sewers. abattoIrs,
lauDdries and factories, the W lille INDUCING
IN the historic Nanderbiltiana regarding the
dear public living south of us. And we 90
on. year by year, drinking the same water
We sprinkle the streets with and which our
tire-engines squirt at the ''red-tongued dew
lis that bother the fire-insurance compa-
MES so much, rolled at every fire-alarm.
and sOInew here rendered tawny and
turbid at every shower, bOat-race or drove
of country drinking or fy-fghting cattle.
and, possibly for this reason, continuously
harvest the usual crop of typhoId-fever
cases and what the doctors class as
''Zym0tic" diseases. all of which are easily
preyentibie, as they come To us through
impure drinking water. Witness the re-
ports to the Board of Health of several
cases of cholera and deaths therefrom in
this city last week. Even in the most
sparkling water. which meets the most So
were chemical tests of purity. typhoid ba-
cllll may swarm.
ANALYSES SETTLE NOTHING.
The Journal has been pounding along
on the impure water question ever
since L first came to this city lin
1870 and probably much longer, and
If the question were much nearer
aAftlemenI now then tbao