The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1910-06-23
WHY WATER WE DRINK IS
NEVER QUITE PURE.
How Nature Employs Small Fish, Plants
Sunlight and Oxygen in Operating a
Marvellous Filtration System.
BY PROF. JOHN PHIN.
(Author of THE Evolution Of Atmosphere" etc.
BY PROF. JOHN PHIN.

y
We use contains impurities OF varying
degrees, from the poisonous liquids
of sewage and contaminated streams
and ponds TO the sparkling and re-
freshing springs which afford such
pleasant drink to the thirsty traveller.
Pure water is to be found only in
the laboratory of the chemist and 1t
is quite tasteless and insipid. The
pleasant drinking water which gushes
from the hillside and which makes
a good well so valuable always con-
tans foreign matters, both gaseous
and mineral, most of these being
quite harmless, although some may
be decidedly deleterious. Conse-
0uently the search of those who seek
water for domestic purposes is al
ways directed to the obtaining of
good water rather than of water that
,is absolutely pure.
All the fresh water found in our
lakes, streams and springs IS derived
from rain. The earth with its clouds
is really a gigantic still in which
water is raised from land and ocean
to the sky and is then preciptated in
the form of dew rain, hail and snow.
That which falls on land is partly
raised again by evaporation, while an
other part sinks into the ground and
reappears as springs and wells or
flows in rivers to the ocean from
which much OF It originally came, and
during its passage from the clouds
10 the ocean it takes up solid and
gaseous matters which enable 1t to
supply certain important require
ments of plants and animals. In
passing through the air it takes up
carbonic acid, oxygen, ammonia and
other things and removes some of the
impurities which exist in the atmo-
sShere and carries them to places
where they serve as food for plants.
When we stand on the seashore and
watch a snowstorm or a heavy down
pour of rain falling upon the waves
Il looks at first as If the addition OF
SO much water to the depths which
are already there were a waste Of en-
ergy and of material. But when we
reflect that every drop Of rain anc
every snowflake carries with it the
necessary food for the plants which
auDport the animal life that exists II
the great deep, we see that nature Il
a series of wonderful compensation
and marvellous adjustments, and tina
il is through these compensations ant
adjustments that our rivers, pond
and lakes are kept in a great measure
pure, often even in spite of the con
Eliminating acts of men and other AMI
mails.
The process by which this is &C
complished is an extremely interest
ing one, and in these days when tn
question of an abundant supply o
good water is forcing itself upon tn
attention of many communities an
individuals It has a practical side a
well.
The most interesting scientific dis
/ coyery ever made in relation to AMI
NAL and vegetable life was undoubt
eddy the revelation Of their opposit
and compromising actions upon tn
gases of the atmosphere. Like a
other great discoveries and inver
lions this was not made at a singl
step; it was developed gradually an
in its complete form it was the re
suit of the labors of many worker
1t began with the discovery OF ca
bonic acid by Black and Of the pre-
ence OF oxygen in the vesicles of sci
weed by Davy, and then it was flu
Their found that animals inhale OK,
gen and expire carbonic acid viii
plants absorb carbonic acid and civ
on oxygen.
That which is true of terrestri
plants and animals is also true
those which inhabit the water A
instructive example Of this may
seen in any well balanced aquariu
where the fish and other animals liz
upon the plants and breathe the OK
gen which the plants produce VINE
by the influence of sunlight, they d
compose the carbonic acid That
found in the breath of the hshe
keeping the carbon to build up the
own tissues and throwing out OK
gen to enable the animals to breath
The plant, through its roots al
perhaps its leaves, absorbs the del
soluble matter which has been pr
duced by .decaying animal and veg
table matter and also such solut
mineral matter as it may require a.
which happens to be present. 1t al
absorbs and decomposes the carbon
acid that 1t finds in solution in t