Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-09
AMERICAN MINERAL WATERS
A Report Upon Them by Experts of the
Geological Survey.
An Improvement in American SAM
taria-SOmeth thing About the
Water Men Drink.

Investigations or the natural mineral
waters of the United States and drinking
waters of eastern United States have for
several years been carried on by the United
States geological survey and the results
are embodied in two special reports by DR..
A. &. Peale and Prof. W. j. MCGEE who
conducted the inquiries. These were made
public today.
The mineral spring resorts of the country
1t is stated. have never been very thorough
ly studied from a statistical point Of view,
although there is scarcely a state in the
Union that has not at least one Of them,
even II only locally important. Many are
used both as resorts and as sources Of
water for commercial purposes. full list
Of these resorts in this country is given in
the publication.
There are between 5000 and 10000 mineral
springs in the country. it is cited, and the
waters from almost 300 are annually placed
on the market, aggregating 21,0OO,0O0 gal
Ions at a valuation Of S5OOOOOO. A COMPARE
son with the statistics of 1888 shows the
increasing Importance of the subject, the
total number Of springs then known to
be used for commercial purposes being lS9,
while the production was 1893, ABB gallons,
valued at 81, ,6O3.
improvements in Sanitaria.
There has been a great improvement in
the santaria of the country in the past
ten years. states the report, land before
long II is hoped that no one will be obliged
to go abroad for treatment at a mineral
spring resort. Until then. the people Of
| this country must rely on the comparison
of our waters with those of the foreign
! countries where the study of their effect
has been carried on for years. Most of the
/ hot springs are in the western states, while
! the majority of those whose waters are used
/ commercially are found in the eastern
/ United States and i'll the Mississippi valley.
! West of the lOlst meridian they are largely
confined to the Pacific coast. Altogether, in
| Montana, Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico,
! there are barely a dozen springs used COM
mercially. In New Hampshire chalybeate
waters are most common: In Vermont sui
! phuretted springs are more common, while
| chalybeate waters are common throughout
| Massachusetts. fair proportion OF the
| mineral waters of New England are used
! both commercially and for places of resorts,
and thermal springs are found to be more
! numerous in the South Atlantic states than
! in the middle states. In the southern CEN
! trail states saline springs dutnumber all
| others, and thermal springs are Few IN
number. Most of the waters in the north
! ern central group are those derived from
/ artesan borings. The western states, al
! though they include little more than 50 per
cent of the total area of the country, con-
/ tain more than so per cent of its known
! thermal springs. Tile springs OF Alaska are
mainly saline, and most of them are sui
! phuretted."
| Potable Waters.
THE average man." cites Prof. MCGEE
in his report on Potable Waters of Eastern
United States, consumes daily about four
and a half pounds of simple liquids, to-
gether with about two and a half pounds
of nominally solid food actually consisting
of equal parts of water and solids
while water may constitute but half
Of the aliment, the danger of germ-p poison
ing from this substance Is, other things
equal. much greater than the danger from
all others combined. A large part of the
population Of the country obtain drinking
water from underground or overground cis-
terms supplied from the storm water from
roofs. Both are safer than ordinary wells,
but danger exists in both. In the northern
and middle zones of Eastern United States
underground csterns prevail. The princi
pal source Of danger in cisterns Is crack
ing of bottom walls or roofs and conse-
Quent leakage or admission of contamin-
ated water.
'Overground wooden cisterns prevail on
the Gulf slope and to some extent on the
Southern Atlantic slope and in the Missis-
sippi valley. At best, the wooden cistern
Is primitive affair, bound to be supplant-
ed by more trustworthy and wholesome
devices. In view of the ways in which the
relatively pure rain water is contaminated
on roofs and in water pipes, no cistern
should be used as potable water supply
without the protection of filter. Practic-
ally, there is probably no city town or
populous village In Eastern United States
that cannot secure a trustworthy supply Of
potable water by collecting the rainfall on
artificial roofs or in artiticialy protected
drainage basins. provided natural streams
are not obtainable. In this way the maxi
/ mum limit of cost for stream-fed water
works may be fixed at the minimum costs
| of rain-fed reservoirs. Artesian waters
may be obtained either generally or under
favorable local conditions in several large
areas These include districts in New Eng
land, New York, northern New Jersey
Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern
1 Tennessee, Kentucky, northwestern Georg-
la. northeastern Alabama, southwestern
Minnesota, southern Wisconsin, about half
/ Of Iowa. extensive tracts in Illinois parts
OF northern Missouri and some portions of
Michigan and Indiana"