Detection of Lead in Water. -- the method of detecting the probable presence of lead in a sample of drinking water is so simple that every reader is advised to take the first opportunity of examining their own water supplies, and so making sure that they or their families are not liable to the insidious dangers of lead poisoning. In order to determine whether a water is contaminated with lead, all one has to do is to drop two or three drops of the solution of sulfide of ammonium into the suspected fluid, contained in a white bowl or large cup, and observe whether a brownish or yellowish coloration is produced. If the liquid remains perfectly clear and colorless you may be sure that it either contains no lead, or that such a metallic impurities present in a quantity of less than 1/10 of a grain to the gallon, an amount which is not generally injurious to health. If
, however, a slight brownish tint is produced in the water which is being tested, it must not be too hastily condemned is poisoned, since either copper or iron might give rise to the same coloration with the reagent. Such a suspicious water pots, however, to be properly analyzed by some good analytical chemist before being employed for either cooking or drinking purposes any further.
I would just like to remind readers and visitors that this is a review of the practices taught in medicine almost 100 years ago and should not necessarily be considered accurate and up to date. Performing any of the actions in this blog may not be safe or have a desirable effect or result any more than using bamboo shades for fencing or taking instructions from a bugs bunny cartoon.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- Wonders of the Spiral Plate
Wonders of the Spiral Plate.-if this curious and artistic spiral play, which is seen to wine 2 ½ times around, could be enrolled and made to stand in an upright position, you would make a beautiful microscopic heart, that of a thousand strings, but of 3000 strings, and if it were possible to strike these delicate infinitesimal chords as we can the keyboard of an organ or piano, every conceivable variety of tone that the ear can distinguish would be produced and conveyed to the brain is the product of sound.
Well if you have been following this series on the ear with me, you are probably as happy as I am that the author is no longer talking about arches in the ear. maybe they ended up finding one of those Freudian drug rehab programs after all!
- Sewer Gas Poison
Sewer Gas Poison. — it had obviously absorbed sewer gas, which it ascended through the overflow pipe, and that this had been the real cause of the disease was indicated by the fact that the diarrhea disappeared almost as rapidly as it had broken out, when the cistern was emptied and the pipe efficiently trapped.
Diarrhea in Country Districts. — Dr. Wilson declares that, according to his experience, much of the diarrhea which prevails in country districts during the summer and autumn amongst children is due to polluted water, drunk either as it is drawn from the well or when mixed with milk, fraudulently or by accident.
I combined these two sections as they are both relatively short and again lend to my hypothesis that the author was paid for not only word count, but important (and unnecessary ) ‘important’ section count. Now , that said, I find this interesting also from the perspective that I myself in doing home improvement projects from installing PVC pipe, toilets and bathroom faucets and systems, I have worked through problems and with plumbing systems that benefited from this knowledge. Although when I was taught how to install pipes and instructed in things about sewer gases and vents I was led to believe that these things were done primarily to help with the pressure and dynamics of making things flush and the possibility of what the gas might do in and of itself didn’t really come up, and was treated almost like something that was obvious.
- Goitre in Switzerland
Goitre in Switzerland. — Dr. Coindet, a Geneva Switzerland, asserts that Goitre is speedily produced in persons who drink the hard pump water in the lower parts of that town, whilst in other parts of Switzerland the use of spring water has been followed by the development of augmentation of Goitre in a very few days. In India also it has been shown conclusively to prevail, to any marked extent, only where the magnesium limestone rocks underlie the soil; but whether it is the line and magnesium salts or whether, as has been suggested, it is the presence of sulfide of iron and the bedrock formation, which is the direct cause of the development of Goitre, has not yet been positively determined. It appears certain however, that Goitre is originated by some water and purity, and that this contamination is of an inorganic and not of an animal or vegetable nature.
So it would appear, that English not the only ones that were hung up on this magnesium and salt issue causing Goitre. They were frankly barking up the wrong tree, and here is yet another reference to an unknown Doctor. For my new and make it to the fitness section of this book, it’s not follow any of the prescriptions for fitness nor consider constructing any of the fitness equipment. They couldn’t even figure out table salt after all. Our poor ancestors…