- Effect of Metallic Impurities
Effect of Metallic Impurities.– the effects of minute traces of metallic substances in drinking water have not yet been ascertained with sufficient accuracy, but it is quite possible that the entire sanitary condition of the district may depend in some measure on impurities of this description. Mr. Wanklyn suggests that the well-known salutary effect of what is called change of air may be, in reality, partly due to the escape from some extremely small metallic impurities in the water of the section of country from which removal takes place.
Well today, people know that heavy metals and water can be extremely poisonous or problematic for people to consume water with these impurities in place. It is somewhat remarkable that this had not been figured out as few as 100 years ago, and that what is relatively common knowledge today was only hypothetical esoteric pseudoscience 100 years back. It’s no wonder that so many developed countries today have so many heavy metal messes to clean up around the world. Today people are looking for the best fat burners that they can buy so they can load up on McDonald’s french fries and eat all that they want, we’ll just a few years back they are looking for safe water to drink, and not even knowing what safe was.
- Another Case of Infection (Cholera Reference to teawater pump in London 1854)
Another Case of Infection.-Another famous illustration is found in the history of the "tea water pump" of broad Street, Near Golden square, London, which during the cholera visitation of 1854, killed nearly 500 persons in a single week, in one of the fashionable localities of the city. It has long been known that water containing five or six grains of lime and magnesium to the gallon is much to be preferred for making tea to water of any other quality. This is because the line precipitates the astringent matter of the leaf, yet does not interfere with the solution of the desirable constituents; and hence certain wells which have the proper proportion of mineral matter come to be valued very highly by persons of nice taste.
The images represent a tea water pump in New York(left) placed over a natural spring (right) that had existed in Manhattan long before Europeans came to the colonies and helped create situations where cholera could break out.
This reference to the 1854 Cholera outbreak would have been relatively recent in the minds of many. It would have only been about 60 years old at the time of this articles printing, however, when this book was first published, it may have been referenced when the epidemic was only 20 – 30 years old possibly. In terms of recency or relevancy, we today might have a similar perspective on the massacre at Jonestown or the Kennedy killing. It would have made a much bigger impression on people that heard the news than say a case of food poisoning resulting from a problem with popcorn machines or something in a bar or movie theater.
- Diarrhea and Dysentery from Impure Water
Diarrhea and Dysentery from Impure Water. — the instances of outbreaks of these two diseases from contaminated water supply are very numerous, and probably most persons can recall examples of this kind. The impurities which produce diarrhea and dysentery are suspended earthy matters, such as are found in most river waters after a rain; suspended animal and vegetable material; salty thing chlorides of Lyme and Magnesia, and nitrate of ammonia and of lime. Besides the numerous outbreaks traceable to direct sewage contamination, there are several instances recorded of indirect poisoning the water supply from this source, as in the following curious case.
Just as a note about the style of writing or documentation, this paragraph seems to be unnecessary as a stand alone topic. Instead it is basically a transition paragraph, yet the author chooses to use it as a stand alone sub topic instead of just using it to work his way from one topic to a very slight tangent in the next topic. This would again seem to reflect the author’s possible motivation for not only being paid by the word but also with a stipend for important bolded topics. This surely does not seem to be practical like following a guide on replacing coilovers in a car or fixing a plumbing problem, and it must have driven some readers nuts as they used this book in semi-emergencies looking for the answer to serious problems only to be distracted by useless sections like this.
Dangers in Snow Water. -- snow water, pure and fresh as it seems may be very dangerous to health and consequence of organic impurities contained in it.
