The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-07-15
PRICE 81 90 PER YEAR.


There is no question in which the peo.
| pic are ST vitality Interested IA the uucs
tion of pure water. 1t is rontendcd by
| eminent doctors aud scientist, that thr
! greater number Of disca~,s which ar
! tiict humanity are due tu i,n,rnrr wn
ter The following from the Times
Democrat is very pertinent tn the .nh
| irct
An interesting subject discussed be
trre tn" late annual conference uf the
british Institution of Civil Engineers
aud on which much light was shed, was
the efficiency of water filtration It
can b" seen at once how much this sub
icct interests New Orlo.rn~ With un
pnr" supply of water, filtration is abso
lutcly necessary for all water used here,
whether from the rivers or the ctstrru,
When DR. Jones was president of the
board of ncaIth he showed how rrronr
ouS was the popular belief that ,istern
water is pure or potable in It's uutiltprrd
condition
The British Institution of Civil Engi
heers went even further. and declared
that no water IN nature IL chenirnliy
pure or free from suspended mattor.
neither Is amy water available for the
wants of man GEOGRAPHICALLY pure.
Dr Franklin, an authur Of nterna
tiunaI reputr, and who has made a spc.
cinl study OF the hacterin In water. was
one oI the principal speakers nu the sub
ject of pure water Microbes. he said,
multiply with great rapidity. Some
hactcrioogists have applied their bacto
riosropic tests to the filtered water after
1t had passed through distribution pipes
OF TIL" mnins, and they have found piou
tiful colonies of hacteria, others on iAe
other hanh, have tuken the wntar inn
nodiately after filtration. and have
found IT comparatively sterile Dr
Franklin investigated and found that
in the transit of filtered water from
Hampton to London the bacteria In.
creased more than tenfoId
The effect of storage in reducing the
number of microbes, says Or. Franklin,
is extraordinarily great Thus while
the number Of microbes in one cubic
centimetre tabont 30 drops, Of Thames
water at Hampton during the five years
averaged 10, ,ajs it was only'iGiO after
storage for about 10 days; and while
the Lea, ut the East London conpnnys
intake averaged 203iG per cubic cent
metre during these years this number
was reduced to isoi by storage for
about II days, II can scarcely be
doubted therefore, that % couple of
months of storage would reduce the
bacterial impnrity of even the worst
water of the Thames and Lea very
moderate amount
This would be nm argument in favor
Of our cistern water were il not that
the cisterns are constantly receiving
fresh supply of microbes with every
rain that washes off the housctops
Another point held by DR. franklin
was that the quality Of water did not
matter If nm efficient system OF fItra,
tion were adopted, and that water con.
tanning 10000 microbes per cubic cent?.
metre would he just as pure an water
containing only 800 microbes If properly
filtered
Our British cousins are staggered by
The amount of water consumed by an
average American The importance Of
pure water in this country can there
fore be readily appreciated There has
been popular demand for pure water
the Union, aud u consequent
great improvement in the quality sup
Ilied, but IL DR. franklin and other
speakers before this entertaining con
sress are TO be believed we arc still very
'nr from getting that absolutely pure
md desirable drinking water we want
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