Difficulty of Obviating Lead Poisoning. -- attempts have been made to obviate the danger of water contamination from lead pipes in various ways, but not as yet with complete success. In some instances the pipes have been lined with other metals, such as tin or zinc; but, at least in some instances, a galvanic action has thus been set up, which corroded the conduits with great rapidity, and probably lead, therefore, still more dangerous pollution of the water supply. Coating the pipes on the inside with coal tar, bituminous varnish, solution of gutta-percha and the India rubber, have also been experimented with, as yet with but partial success.

Well those prescriptions sound about as useful as most prescriptions for acne treatments today.  Again, I would remind everyone that the quote above is from a 100 year old medical book and the preventative steps offered really only offer historical perspective. 

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Great Value and Beauty of the Plate
  
  

  Great Value and Beauty of the Plate.–We can understand much of this wonderful process. We have looked into the stomach, watched its peculiar actions and traced its various steps, from which the scientist is capable, in his laboratory of knives, mortars, baths, chemicals and filters, of imitating many of the operations of digestion; but just at the moment he thinks himself most successful, he is compelled to pause.  At the threshold of that “one step more,” which Fontenelle required, “and he would surprise nature herself,” he stops, and very wisely, without concealment of his designs, admires, then wonders, and finally worships with all the reverence of his soul.

   

  After reading that diatribe, I have to honestly say I have no idea what the author is talking about.  The other seems beyond some strange sort of rant about science, scientists in the digestive system.  Unfortunately he’s ranting on a bunch of nonsense almost sound like he’s talking about Frankenstein’s monster.  One things for sure I’m glad that I didn’t take a class instructed by this writer.  If this book is that hard to understand from sheer gibberish, I can just imagine what’ll lecture would be like.

  I don’t think this has so much to do with the difference in the decades of the century even.  This seems to be more of an issue of an author suffering from the ability to provide a clear thought and written format.  It’s almost like listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher lecture on real estate over the telephone in a Peanuts cartoon.

  WAh wah wah wah , wu wah . . . .

   

  This entry seems to reaffirm my belief that this author got paid by the word and not by the concept of thought.

• Lead Poison in Water
  
  

  Lead Poison in Water. — these are probably very common throughout our whole country, and, contrary to what at first sight might be imagined, it is likely that led much more frequently and seriously affects the health of people inhabiting small villages and country houses, and that of residence in cities, notwithstanding the latter constantly use water which is brought into their homes through long lines of lead service pipes. The explanation of this seeming paradox is that river water, which is that usually supplied citizens, contains in almost all cases a small amount of the sulfate of lime, sulfate of Magnesia, or some other compound of sulfuric acid, which, when brought in contact with the lead pipes, is decomposed, and the resulting sulfate of lead which is formed as the happy faculty of clinging to the inside of the pipes when it is produced, and this constituting an insoluble lining, which not only protects the tube from further corrosion, but also, what is of far greater importance from a sanitary point of view, prevents any further contamination of drinking water which flows through the conduit.

   

  While people did not fully understand lead poisoning 100 years ago, its obvious that they were starting to learn rapidly and preparing to move into a world where this problem was taken seriously, preventative measures were taken and diagnosis for lead poisoning could be performed.  It was not a Beautifeel world yet but it was taking a step closer.

• Quantity of Water Needed
  
  

  Quantity of Water Needed.-the quantity of water needed by man and animals must therefore be very carefully calculated. Repeated experiments upon a very extended scale in England have shown that a healthy man requires daily as drink from 2 to 4 pints of water, this amount being in addition to that which is swallowed as moisture and food. The amount required for cooking is estimated at from having gallantly gallon or more. To this quantity, Dr. Parkes considers should be added for daily ablution, including a sponge bath, 5 gallons; daily share of kitchen and other utensils, and house washing, 3 gallons; and share of clothes washing, another 3 gallons; making up a total of a little over 12 gallons for each individual daily. In the poorer districts of the city of London, the amount used is stated to be only about 5 gallons daily. A shower-bath will require about 4 gallons extra, and a plunge-bath from 40 to 60 gallons. Where water-closets are used in additional quantity of from 4 to 6 gallons daily for each person must be provided.

  In general this is actually one of the more interesting paragraphs that I found in this book. It describes several things that I believe could be rather unique. First it discusses the quantity of water needed for human consumption. It describes experiments done in England and considering that this book was published sometime around the turn-of-the-century around 1916 by my estimates, this would seem to indicate a human water consumption estimates of 2 to 4 pints presented 20 years before the FDA guidelines written by a bureaucrat that suggested that people should drink 8 cups of water a day.

  Furthermore I find this one interesting from the perspective that it discusses how much water people may have used around the turn-of-the-century. I live in the Southeast of the United States and today we are in a drought.. Water consumption is definitely an important issue for the Southeast United States and many other areas of the world. And therefore when I listen to and read some of the items here that describe how much water should be used or could be used, it seems strikingly different than what we might use today, especially as we have many more appliances that use water, and many newer appliances that are designed to be energy-efficient.  Very very interesting section, some of those water estimates seemed very high by todays standards and some seemed relatively low, at dollhouses levels.