The Washington times., 1905-04-03


District of Columbia medical authorities
during the typhoid fever epidemic of last
year. of the offer made by the United
States authorities to clean the germs
, Out of the Potomac water, when these
authorities asserted that copper is dan
serous. the United States authorities TO-
day issued a bulletin asserting that con-
per IS wholly safe, and of inestima bic
value in purifying water supplies.
The bulletin Is prepared bv DIR Gao-ya
T. Moore, OF the Bureau of Plant IN
oustry of the Department of Agricul-
ture
Will Kill Fish.
Besides the undesirable germs. the
experiments discovered the fact that
me only thing copper will kill quickly
and indiscriminately is fish.
Copper killed 40 per cent of eight-inch
trout in n pond in Massa chusetts in
winch the investigators were at work.
commissioner of Fisheries George NJ
Bowers in experiments discovered that
one part of copper in 5s2. 900 parts of
water would Kill quinnat salmon in a
few hours.
Concerning the use of copper near
Washington, DR.. Moore quotes a report
made by Alfred NJ Quick, of the engi-
neer department of Baltimore. The re-
port deals with the cleaning of the
water in Lake Clifton
Engiraer Quick's Report
Engineer Quick says:
Before the lake was treated t had
cloudy, greenish color. immediately
after treatment it had steely, blush
color. and when the lake was turned into
service again, 120 hours after the apph-
catien of the sulphste, It had a clear
white color.
Notwithstanding the small amount of
sulpflate used in proportion to the volume
OF water treated. all the particu-
lar algae which cause discoloration and
odor,. which l believe are the cyano-
phyceae, were eliminated in forty-eight
hours. and practically all the various
ether kinds of aIgae were eliminated in
40 hours
AS for any deleterious effect from the
Use of the suiphate. the city chemist re-
ported TO me that an analysis Of 800 C. C.
of the water 40 hours after treatment
showed no traces of copper.
Treatment of Water
bulletin continues:
Will cDpptT. 5SC1pNdlS
an effective and practicable means of
sterllzing water polluted with certain
pathnogenic bacteria and as an emer-
gency method is applicable 20 both
household and municipal conditions. 1t
should prove particularly useful in very
large water supplies accidentally Or sud-
denly contaminated with typhoid bacilli
which are not provided with any ade-
- 6.
circumstances the case becomes not one
Of pure water versus water containing
an amount OF copper Sulphate but of
sterile water containing an amount of
copper not eEd9Dgerous to health versus
water and typhoid bacilli
The method formerly suggested for
treating reservoir would undoubtedly
be advisable in special cases of unusual
ly great contamination when the water
contained an abnormal amount of or
fanic matter. but in general an epi-
demic could be controlled and quickly
erad!cated By solution much weaker
than the / TO 100 900 listed as necessary
for complete sterilization within twelve
sours One to 100000 is sufficient IN
most cases. and even less than this
gcant1ty of copper is of decided bene-
ht IN certain kinds of water
What Copper Will Do.
DR.. Moore continues with the asser-
i'oii ihat copper Wiii Eli both typhoid
and cholera germs in any sort of water.
he quotes number of prominent au-
thorities to prove the contention. He
gays copper viii even clean sewage
II will be remembered that typhoid in
Washington was due to the contanina-
ton Of Potomac water by a village I'D
the river. In regard 10 such conditions
DR. Moore says:
he existing methods Of sewage dis
posal and water publication are partfcu-
larly unfortunate. To deliberately con-
taninate water ant then try to purify
II seems ridiculous, YET this IS precisely
what is now being done in a number OF
communities. The ultimate solution of
the problem Of water supply must de-
PEND upon proper sewage DISPOSAL, IS
Wen as the proper care and polictag of
revolution OF methods shall have taken
place, the moke-shifts-flt-atfon, and
treating with copper-are the only rem
pnlpg QDnlip1 hlQ n Ia