The value of pure water / by George C. Whipple.

  • George C. Whipple
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of pure water / by George C. Whipple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    physiological disturbances. It is said that persons of a rheumatic tendency often find partial relief by chang¬ ing from a hard to a soft water. The taste of hard water is largely a matter of personal idiosyncrasy or habit. Some persons prefer hard water, while others like soft water. As a rule, water does not taste hard unless the hardness exceeds 50 parts per million. Much depends upon the nature of the min¬ eral salts present and a good deal upon the sensitive¬ ness of the individual. Some tastes are particularly sensitive to chlorides, others to alkalies, others to such astringents as alum or ferrous sulphate. The following results of some experiments on taste sensitiveness, made by Mr. Mel¬ ville C. Whipple, are interesting in this connection. Solutions of different strengths of some of the more common salts found in drinking-water were submitted to about twenty individuals for the purpose of ascer¬ taining the smallest amounts which could be detected by the taste. The figures in the table indicate the number of observers who could detect a taste in dis¬ tilled water containing the various salts to the amounts indicated, though they do not necessarily mean that the particular taste could be recognized in that dilu¬ tion. It is interesting to notice that in the case of well-known tastes, such as those of sodium chloride
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