CIKCULAE LIII. 
Pure Drinking Water—How to Secure It. 
The importance of having a pure drinking water is such that 
every care should be taken to secure a good water supply, and 
then to keep it pure. 
Impurities are either animal, vegetable, or mineral. Where 
the organic matters are animal, they tend to become putrescent, 
and when taken into the system may produce fever or other dis- 
order. When the matter is introduced in smaller quantities, it 
undergoes decomposition more or less rapidly according to the 
condition of the air or temperature. In such cases no smell or 
taste may be perceptible. The constant use of such water some- 
times causes disease, even where the quantity is small. Some 
persons seem more susoeptible than others, and their own sys- 
tems either cause or accelerate changes which had not been 
noticeable before. Vegetable impurities also tend to decompo- 
sition under favoring conditions. These disorder the system, or 
cause malaria or other special forms of disease. Mineral impuri- 
ties are owing to the suspension or solution of mineral particles 
in the water. Some of these, as sulphur or iron, give taste to 
wTater, but do not injure it unless present in too large quantities. 
Others, as lead, may in small quantities seriously affect the 
human system. Others, as lime, are chiefly injurious by pro- 
ducing too great hardness of water. The taste of water fresh 
from the well is not by any means a perfect guide as to its purity. 
If it has much organic matter in it which is already under- 
going decomposition, there may be taste and odor, or its organic 
impurities may have been so far destroyed as to yield no un- 
pleasant taste or odor, and yet there may remain some danger- 
ous contamination. Its being an agreeable drinking water to 
those accustomed to its use does not prove its purity. 
Water as it comes from the clouds and is strained through the 
ground is so nearly pure that it is generally good, except where 
wells and springs are in some way fouled by nearness to houses 
or pits of decayable material. In cities, where the soil is likely 2 
to become filled with decomposable matter to a degree that the 
ground, the air, the sunlight and vegetation cannot rapidly re- 
move it, the water generally becomes impure. 
The usual supply of drinking water naturally divides into 
public water supply, cisterns and wells or springs. Where there 
is public water supply, the only way is for companies to have 
from time to time proper examinations made, and, if the quality 
is not what it should be, to know the cause and to apply the 
remedies, so many of which are now available. The general 
water supply, which has been good, may come to be impure. 
It may have too much sewage put in the river, or the pipes may 
become fouled, or these or the reservoirs may have growth of 
minute forms of plant-life,or water long impounded and in great 
quantities may become deadened by want of oxygen or air in the 
water. Thus water, from a good source, may become fouled in 
its distribution. Proper reservoirs and filtering basins und the 
introduction of compressed air into the impounded water, will 
do much to correct any temporary deterioration. 
Where cistern water is relied upon, the first care must be ex- 
ercised to receive it from a clean roof, to see to it that the first 
water of a rain does not go into it, and that the main supply is 
derived from long and heavy rains, rather than from occasional 
showers. If a leader ends in a hogshead or tank proportioned 
in size to the water capacity of the roof or its single leaders, and 
is arranged with an overflow tube to the main cistern, or with an 
automatic float, it will, when nearly full, divert the purer water 
into the main cistern, and leave the former to be used for non- 
drinking purposes. Cistern water, unless collected and kept with 
care, may be charged with organic matter. The cistern should 
in size bear proportion to the needs of the family, so that it can 
be empty enough to be cleaned twice a year. If in the ground, 
it should be tightly cemented and kept so well covered that 
small animals and foul gases cannot enter it. The pump fitted 
in it should be of metal When it is claimed that air should be 
admitted to the cistern, it is best to have an upright shaft of a 
few feet, in the top of which there is a wire gauze to protect 
from leaves, etc. 
Wells and springs must be most carefully protected from any 
possible defilement. To this end, it must be remembered that it 
is not safe to place any well within one hundred feet of any cess- 3 
pool, privy, cow or pig-pen, or other deposit of foul matter* 
Sometimes, without knowledge of where these have been be- 
fore, wells are dug in too close proximity. The well should be 
carefully stoned or bricked, and for at least four feet from the 
top the bricks should be laid in cement, and come up higher 
than the surrounding ground. The soil should not be rich just 
about the well. The cover of the well and its pump should 
be such as not to admit any foul matter. People are too often 
careless in rinsing vessels about a well. Even a cistern may be 
defiled by the soil or spillings about it, and wells often are. The 
cistern may have crevices, or may have something fall into it, or 
may have its water become dead by long standing. The well 
may have its surrounding soil so saturated with decaying mate- 
rial as finally to become unable to oxidize it. Some new crack 
or underground rill may let into it foul liquid from sources that 
have never reached it before, and which are especially liable to 
reach it in dry weather. The same may, more or less, happen 
to springs. Therefore, it is not enough to say that a water sup- 
ply has been good, as it may have suddenly become bad from 
causes not visible. Where, because of sickness or for other rea- 
sons, there is suspicion as to the purity of the water, resort 
should be had to some simple tests, or at once to chemical or 
biological examination. 
Here are a few tests which, without all the appliances of a 
chemist, may much aid in indicating whether further examina- 
tion is necessary, or whether it is wise to cease using the water 
until fully examined : 
Color.—Fill a clean, long bottle made of colorless glass with the 
water; look through the water at some black object; the water 
should appear perfectly colorless and free from suspended mat- 
ter. A muddy or turbid appearance indicates the presence of 
soluble organic matter or of solid matter in suspension. 
Odor.—Empty out some of the water, leaving the bottle half 
full; cork up the bottle, and place it for a few hours in a warm 
place ; shake up the water, remove the cork, and critically smell 
the air contained in the bottle. If it has any smell, and especi- 
ally if the odor is in the least repulsive, the water should be re- 
jected for domestic use. By heating the water to boiling, an odor 
is evolved sometimes that otherwise does not appear. 
Taste.—Water fresh from the well is usually tasteless, even 4 
though it may contain some putrescible organic matter. W ater 
for domestic use should be perfectly tasteless, and remain so even 
after it has been warmed, since warming often develops a taste 
in water which is tasteless when cold. If the water at any time 
has a repulsive, or even disagreeable taste, it should be rejected. 
As some waters of dangerous quality fail to indicate their ira* 
purity either by smell or taste, what is known as the Heisch test 
is of value: Fill a clean pint bottle three-fourths full with the 
water to be tested ; add to it a half-teaspoonful of clean granu- 
lated or crushed loaf sugar; stop the bottle with a glass stopper 
or a clean cork, and let the bottle stand in the light in a moder- 
ately warm room. If in tw’enty-four or forty-eight hours the 
water becomes cloudy or milky it is unfit for domestic use. 
While cloudiness in the water after standing certainly indicates 
unfitness for use, yet a negative result does not prove the water 
to be good ; because the test often fails to indicate organic mat- 
ter really present, if phosphates are absent. 
Chlorine in Water.—The following test for chlorine is also 
available in the hands of some physicians. It is distinctly under- 
stood that the results are approximate. A larger proportion than 
two grains to the gallon in well waters is a just cause for suspicion 
of the character of drinking water. Therefore, if you find more 
than that proportion, examine the well and its surroundings, and 
in case of sickness forbid use till examined more in detail by other 
tests. It may happen that less than one grain to the gallon is 
the normal quantity of chlorine in certain localities, so that it 
would be well for the examiner to acquaint himself with the 
normal proportion for the various districts under his care. Any 
chlorine in excess of the normal amount is suspicious. 
Chemicals required—Nitrate of silver, (pure crystalized; 
chromate of potash (not bi chromate ; its color yellow, not red); 
distilled water, that from condensed steam of factories, or fur- 
nished by druggists, or, better, collected from the domestic tea- 
kettle by simple device into clean glass bottles. 
Note—Always test your distilled water by a drop of the 
nitrate silver solution. It should give no cloud. 
Apparatus.—A glass-stoppered colored bottle, or one covered 
closely with dark blue paper for your nitrate of silver solution, 
capacity, 1 pint; another ordinary 16-ounce glass stoppered bot- 
tle for chromate potash solution ; a white porcelain evaporating 5 
dish of 8 ounce capacity, or smooth, white china bowl, or deep 
soup plate will do as well; a drachm measure divided into 
minims. 
To prepare the solutions : 
SILVER SOLUTION. 
Nitrate of silver, (cryst.) grains,50; distilled water, 13 ounces; 
in colored or covered glass-stoppered bottle, as above. 
One drachm of this solution is equal to one-tenth (.1) grain of 
chlorine. Weight and measure must be accurate. Remember, in 
collecting and testing water, all containers must be clean and 
then rinsed in the water in question. 
CHROMATE SOLUTION. 
Chromate of potash, 4 drachms; distilled water, 16 ounces. 
Label your solutions and provide 4 ounce glass-stoppered bot- 
tles, prepared as above, for use, refilling as required from the 
larger ones. 
To apply the chlorine test: Pour in the clean dish or bowl, 8 
ounces of the water. To that add a drachm of the chromate so- 
lution and mix, with a clean broken thermometer tube or other 
clean glass rod. The water will have the bright yellow color 
of the chromate. Into the clean drachm measure put exactly 
1 drachm of nitrate of silver solution. Pour it, drop by drop, 
into the colored water, stirring well after each drop. So long as 
the red color produced by the silver disappears entirely on stir- 
ring, continue dropping, but the moment it gives a permanent 
reddish tinge, however faint it may be, to the water, your test is 
made. Read the number of minims you have used. The drachm 
represents the tenth of a grain in 8 ounces, or 1.6 grains per 
American gallon. Therefore, 30 minims = .8 grains per Ameri- 
can gallon ; 15 minims = .4 grains per American gallon, and so 
on. A water which takes more than 1 drachm of the silver solu- 
tion contains more than 1.6 grains per gallon. You can tell how 
much more, by taking another drachm of the silver solution and 
proceeding as before, on the same sample, till the red color is 
permanent. Suppose it takes 30 minims more, you would 
then have used 1.5 drachms = .15 grains chlorine in 8 ounces of 
the water, or 2.4 grains per American gallon. Figure the same 
way for any other proportion. 
Formula—Multiply .1 by the amount of silver solution in 
drachms and fractions of a drachm which are required for the 6 
test; this gives the number of grains of chlorine in 8 ounces of 
the water. That, multiplied by 16, expresses the chlorine in 
grains per American gallon. 
Note—Grain* of chlorine per American gallon can be reduced to grains 
of tall per American gallon by multiplying by 1.66. 
Water thus found impure should not be used until further 
tested either by the usual chemical methods, or the additional 
gelatine method proposed by Koch. Even where water is sus- 
pected, it is much better not to use it for drinking purposes 
until it has been boiled and poured several times from one ves- 
sel to another to aerate it. Or if boiled and passed through a 
filter, similar aeration takes place. Alum has considerable 
power as a purifier of water, as it combines with albumen, etc., 
and removes or settles the organic matter. As, when taken in 
much quantity or continuously, it affects the health and causes 
disturbance of the digestion, its popular use has been generally 
discouraged. But good authorities claim that even if an amount 
of two grains to the gallon be well stirred through the water ami 
it be allowed to stand a few minutes, it will do much not only to 
clear it but to dispose of the organic matter, and that this 
amount can have no ill effect. 
Where it is found desirable to have further chemical testing 
of the water, two or three quarts of it should be put in a new 
bottle, which has been thoroughly rinsed several times with 
the same water that is being collected. The bottle should be 
plugged with an absolutely new, clean cork, previously well 
washed in the same water, and this bound over with a 
strong string, sealed with sealing-wax so that it may not be dis- 
turbed in transit. When the water is taken from a river or open 
spring, it should be dipped out below the surface; if taken from 
a pump or faucet, the water should first be allowed to run, so as 
to fully cleanse the pump or pipe. The sample should be sent 
to some chemist who has full laboratory facilities, and who has a 
reputation for correct analysis. 
Hardness of water is so fully treated in the 8th report of this 
board (1884) that we shall not consider it here. It must be re- 
membered, however, that this and other mineral conditions are 
injurious to some persons. 
Refer to the index of each State Report of the Board of Health 
as to water. 7 
FILTERS. 
Water which is discolored or impure in some form which may 
not be injurious, often needs to be filtered. Also water which 
contains organic matter can be much improved by passing it 
through filters. 
Cisterns are often well provided with filters of their own, by 
having a partition of brick, so that the water is passed into one 
side and drawn through the other. A solid brick wall laid 
carefully in cement mortar, makes a good filter. The bricks 
should be rather underburned, and extending through from one 
side of the wall to the other, and the faces of the wall not cov- 
ered with mortar. Water will filter through such a wall fast 
enough for the supply of a family, and if the rain all enters the 
cistern upon one side of the wall and is drawn out upon the 
other side, the water is clean and sufficiently pure. Such cis- 
terns should be occasionally cleaned out and the partition wall 
scrubbed. If, by an ordinary bellows, air is blown through the 
brick septum from the side opposite to that on which the roof 
water comes in, it helps to restore its straining power. 
There are various forms of house filters, some of which are 
cheap and valuable. Flannel tied on the faucet of the water 
pipe will greatly improve the appearance of drinking water, and 
will strain out much organic matter. A tube or box with sponge 
in it will also be satisfactory in clarifying turbid water, and it is 
easily and quickly washed and replaced. A sheet of filtering 
paper as used by druggists and a glass or tin funnel furnishes a 
good means of filtering water on a small scale. A fresh sheet of 
filtering paper will be generally needed each day. Granulated 
animal charcoal, in boxes or vessels where the water can filter 
slowly through it, improves its appearance and quality. The 
chief idea of a filter is well illustrated thus: 
Take any common vessel perforated below, such as a flower- 
pot, and put a small, clean piece of sponge over the hole. Fill 
the lower portion with gravel stones, over which place a layer of 
finer gravel and on these a layer of clean, coarse sand, the pro- 
portion of each being about the same. 
On the top of this place a lid of unglazed clay, either very 
porous or perforated with small holes, and on this a stratum three 
or four inches thick of well-burnt, pounded animal charcoal. A 8 
filter thus formed will last for a long time, is easily cleaned, and 
will be found to act both by mechanical and chemical purifica- 
tion. 
The following are good directions from so good an authority 
as Dr. Parkes: 
“The filtration of water is not difficult, even if you cannot 
afford to buy a regular filter. The compressed charcoal blocks 
are cheap and good ; if they clog, rub them gently with a towel, 
or, if that does not clear them, with a hard brush ; if they are 
still clogged, they must be gently scraped with a knife. But if 
the charcoal block is too expensive, a simple filter can be made 
as follows: Get a common earthenware garden flower pot; cover 
the hole with a bit of zinc gauze or a bit of elean-washed flan- 
nel, which should be changed from time to time; then get some 
rather small gravel, wash it very well and put it into the pot to 
the height of three inches ; then get some white sand and wash 
it very clean, and put that on the gravel to the height of three 
inches ; then buy two pounds of animal charcoal, wash that also 
by putting it into au earthen vessel and pouring boiling water 
on it, then, when the charcoal has subsided, pour off the water, 
and put some more on for three or four times. When the char- 
coal has been well washed, put it on the sand and press it well 
down. Have four inches of charcoal if possible. The filter is 
now ready, pour water into the pot, and let it run through the 
hole into a large glass bottle. 
“After a time the charcoal will get clogged; take ofl a little 
from the top and boil it two or three times, and then spread it 
out and let it dry before the fire. It will then be as good as 
ever. From time to time all the charcoal and the sand also may 
want washing. The sand may be put over the charcoal, and not 
between it and the gravel; but this plan sometimes leads to the 
charcoal being carried with the water through the gravel and 
out of the hole. The sand stops it. 
“ By filtering in this way, and by boiling the water, many 
dangers are done away with.’ 
Another similar suggestion is as follows: It is that of a sim- 
ple glazed earthenware jar, holding five gallous, or even less, 
having a double bottom. The upper bottom has a small hole 
closed by a bit of sponge ; the spaoe of four inches or so between 
the two bottoms is packed with clean gravel, above which is fine 9 
clean sand; the lower bottom is perforated with very fine holes 
through which the water slowly paSses to an earthenware vessel 
below, into the top of which the filtering vessel tightly fits. The 
water is drawn off from the lower vessel by a faucet. If this 
lower vessel is unglazed it will serve at once as a cooler and res- 
ervoir. Such filters and reservoirs are now largely made, except 
that the reservoir is also glazed, necessitating in summer the use 
of ice, for such filtered water is very flat at first. 
Another form of filter, as suggested in the last report of the 
State Geologist, is as follows: 
“ The most practical form of filter for household use, and one 
that will easily filter a pitcher full of water in a short space of 
time, can be made out of a bottle. The best form is the long 
kind in which sweet oil is sold, although almost any kind of 
glass or earthenware bottle will answer. The bottom of the bot- 
tle is cracked off, and the sharp edge removed by rasping with a 
file. The cracking can be done by tying a thin, soft string, 
soaked in turpentine, around the place where it is intended to 
crack, leaving as small a knot as possible, then setting fire to the 
turpentine, holding the bottle bottom up. After allowing the 
oil to burn for an instant, the end of the bottle is placed quickly 
in cold water, when, if the operation has been rightly conducted, 
an even crack will be produced, and the bottom of the bottle 
will come off easily. 
“ A layer of cotton is now placed in the bottle. The cotton 
must be worked in water, preferably warm water, in order to re- 
move the adhering air, and to wet it well. A wad of the wet 
cotton is dropped into the bottle and covers the mouth of the 
neck. Other pieces are dropped in, care being taken to build the 
layer up evenly, and to add the cotton in rather small pieces. 
After dropping them in, they should be pressed down and ar- 
ranged by means of a rod. In this way a layer is made which 
should be from two to three inches thick. It should not be 
pressed down too tightly, else it may filter too slowly ; neither 
should it be too light, or water may form channels through it. 
After a little use the plug generally adapts itself. Particular 
care should be taken to be sure that the cotton is snug against 
both sides, since the water is liable to escape there. The plugs, 
however, are easy to make, and a few attempts will soon teach 
one all the necessary manipulations. 10 
“This bottle filter can be suspended or supported in auy con- 
venient way. Perhaps the simplest support is a block of wood 
having an auger hole bored through the centre, and the edges of 
the hole reamed out. In this hole the bottle sits securely, and 
the bevel of the hole catches the shoulder of the bottle, thus 
holding it upright.” 
It is advised that the water to be filtered should be well stirred 
with alum added in the small amount heretofore named (two 
grains to a gallon, or one-quarter of an ounce to fifty gallons), 
and this poured through this filter pipe. It will run through in 
a considerable stream from the bottom, and can be caught in 
any convenient vessel, or a water holder both above and below 
can be combined with a filter thus made so as to be movable. 
The cotton used is simply the usual cheap white cotton batting. 
It makes a coherent filtering layer, and when clogged by use 
can be cleansed by boiling up in water and rinsing, or, as it is 
so cheap, can perhaps as well be thrown away and replaced by 
new. 
Such precautions, and even boiling of water before such fil- 
tering, are worthy of thought, not only when any wide-spread 
epidemic prevails, but also when there is any good reason to 
suspect impurity of water supply. It is to be remembered that 
wells once found good generally remain good, unless they receive 
foreign matter from errors on the part of their owners, which is 
too often the case. 
Where there is the least suspicion of the well water, it is best 
first to consult the family physician, who may aid in the more 
simple tests; but if there is good reason for suspicion he will 
advise you not wholly to rely upon these approximate results, 
but direct you to those who have more experience in the work, 
and the advantages of laboratories with all appliances needed. 
May, 1885. 
Copie* of (hi* and other Circular* can be ha/1 for ilutribution by aildreMing |>o«tal 
to E. M. Hunt, Secretary, Trenton, N. J.