Water analysis, as it should, and as it should not, be performed by the Medical Officer of Health. With illustrations / by Cornelius B. Fox.
- Date:
- 1875
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Water analysis, as it should, and as it should not, be performed by the Medical Officer of Health. With illustrations / by Cornelius B. Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![Purgative waters. better than one containing an excess; for the constant imbibition of fluids, strongly impregnated with saline substances, tends to diminish the richness of the blood, and to render some people anaemic. Although the waters from the artesian wells in Essex contain, as a rule, a very minute , proportion of organic matter, yet they hold in solution a large quantity of salts, derived from sand beds beneath and sometimes alternating with strata of the London clay. These waters, containing as they do so large a quantity of saline matters, cannot be considered so wholesome as land springs, equally free from a deleterious amount of organic matter. I have often seen the ill effects of the continued employment of waters rich in saline matters. Some well waters have i been found to contain an enormous proportion of salts. I once analyzed a water from an artesian well which held in solution 341 grains of solids in each gallon, and another water i possessing the large amount of 485 grains per gallon. Sea j water holds in solution solids to the amount of between 2,400 and 2,700 grains per gallon. Spring water of the best quality usually contains about 14, j 17, 18, or 19 grains per gallon of solid residue. The maximum j limit of solid residue permissible is from 30 to 40 grains per 1 gallon, but waters containing a larger amount are in certain ] cases permissible if the salts are quite harmless. Some wells contain water so purgative as to preclude the j possibility of employing them as a regular water supply. I have met with many waters of this kind in Essex. They I contain sulphate or carbonate of magnesia. I look upon j them in this county, which contains so much ague, such a large amount of liver disorders, hsemorrhoidal and other j malarial affections, as mineral waters of some value. Con-1 taining, as they do, not only a purgative salt, but a large fl proportion of other saline matters, they are not wholesome •waters for general and constant use. In localities where these ‘j](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21995904_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
