Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-09-25
WHERE THE LIMPID WATERS
FLOW.

The question of Water has for some
days disturbed number of our citizens,
and some not our citizens.
DR.. G. T. Lewis of this city, under
took to show, through articles in a
local paper, that we have an abundance
of water if properly conserved, and
need not expend three or four hundred
thousand dollars for that element.
This was perfectly proper thing to do.
In doing so, however, he called down
on his head the ire of ''Subscriber" of
long standing to said local paper, who
swept away, as he supposed, all the
Doctor had said, with the broom many
use when lacking argument, known as
"Rot.n Then 'Subscriber" asks :
"What does he know about water ?"
Well what do any of us know about
it J.? We use as little of it as possible.
We use it principally for purposes of
bathing when we do use it, or to flood
streets or sewers. DR.. Lewis might,
with the same propriety, have asked
Subscriber, "What doyou know about
Water ?" and possibly both would
have been up against it. There are few
water witches around here. The only
one seems to be in Harrisonburg, and
DR.. Lewis called him forth from his
hiding and having come forth he sheds
light on photography instead of water.
He tells us also that the existence OF
''slime and filth" on anything but a
duck pond is ''such false premise as
to be hardly worth notice" He also
tells us that the words "Germs and
Bacteria" must not be used synony-
mously, such use not being "scientifi-
cally permissible. Then to make every
thing as clear as mud, the Harrison
burg scientist tells the Staunton public
that when DR.. Lewis said that s'nitrites
and nitrates are the main food elements
of germs, and that germs and bacteria
cannot live in water unless it contains
these nitrates and nitrites," he, the
Doctor, was full of mud, "duck pond
mudu from the farm.
All, says the scientist from Harrison
burg:
''This is positively and dramatically
opposed to the leading authorities in
the science of bacteriology who have
led ME capitals ours) to believe that
the nitrifcation of organic matter in
water is the first step in the process of
its absolute publication and is caused
and instituted by anaerobic bacteria,
and that nitrites and nitrates easily
oXydizable compounds) are the result
of the presence of the bacteria (Which
are not germs nor animalculae) and
now the unreserved statement of DIR.
Lewis that snitrites and nitrates' are
the main food elements of germs and
bacteria is perfectly astounding.
When the teacher told the child that
'tA door is an orifce in an edifice," the
teacher might be termed a scientist.
When a girl just returned from board
ing school to her home on the farm,
where there is a duck pond, told her
mother that her silver thimble was ga
truncated cone, convex on its summit,
and semi perforated with symmetrical
indentations, she was not giving the
old lady "Rot." She was dipping into
learning and of course into "science,"
such as the dissertation we have seen
from Harrisonburg, on the food of
germs and bacteria, nitrites and nj
trates, oxydizable compounds, and
animaIculae.
Horses eat corn, oats and hay. Hogs
seem to prefer corn, cows can subsist
on most any old thing, but that the
blessed ''germs and bacteria" do not
whet their teeth on ''nitrites and nj
trates" is here made SO plain and con-
vincing that fool though he may have
his speedometer registering ninety
miles an hour, may read. There is
nothing like "Science" and Rot" to
settle these vexed and intricate ques-
TONS ssPeace be still' has claimed
waters on other occasions, but Science
and Rot hold sway now.
The work or government officials
consists entirely in boosting Taft. We
have fresh supply of them in Staun-