Lead Poison in Rural Districts. -- in rural districts, on the other hand, whenever Rainwater is used for drinking purposes, it is exceedingly liable to be contaminated with lead from lead lined cisterns, led service- or collection-pipes, lead ropes, or from the solder of tin roofs. As a rule, the purer the Rainwater, the greater is its action on lead with which it stands in contact; hence, therefore, the presence of a minute quantity of some salt of sulfuric acid and water is of very great importance, and serves as an invaluable protection against lead poisoning to the human beings and animals who may employ it for drinking purposes.

There are many sources for lead poisoning, chief among them is typically lead based paints.  However, today people also run the risk of exposure to heavy metals through many batteries from all those devices that require Nickel Cadmium or Lithium Ion batteries.  We don’t always think about what is going into our environment when we’re putting more laptop memory in a computer or buying a spare battery, not to mention all the cell phone batteries churning through landfill dumps each year.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• THE LEG; ITS MECHANISM AND ITS WONDERFUL ENDOWMENTS
  
  

  Leg Muscle.- In every part of the human brain there is witnessed ample evidence of design, beauty of architecture, great skill, Finnish workmanship, and a perfect adaptability to the duties he performed.  This fact is strikingly illustrated in the beautifully executed color plates to which attention is now drawn, join as it does, at a glance, a thick, strong, muscular instruments employed in the manifold intricacies involved in the act of human locomotion.  This exquisitely artistic anatomical plate represents a front view of the pie, leg and foot, and of the 54 fleshy lovers which give form, shape, symmetry, strength and mobility to this useful member of the body.  Quite a number of the most important are seen exposed to view, after the scan and fatty tissues have been removed.  We are deeply impressed with their large size and great strength, both of which correspond with the requirements demanded the very work which the lake is called onto the form.

  In many ways this initial section of the book seems to read less like a medical book and more like a sales pitch trying to convince people to like the human body and accept the ‘beauty’ of the anatomy of the body.  This sales pitch like style is reminiscent of reading a sales catalog for floor tile or a flyer on the latest model of Fords or something.  Its more like copy writing than medical text.

• Lead Poison in Rural Districts
  
  

  Lead Poison in Rural Districts. — in rural districts, on the other hand, whenever Rainwater is used for drinking purposes, it is exceedingly liable to be contaminated with lead from lead lined cisterns, led service- or collection-pipes, lead ropes, or from the solder of tin roofs. As a rule, the purer the Rainwater, the greater is its action on lead with which it stands in contact; hence, therefore, the presence of a minute quantity of some salt of sulfuric acid and water is of very great importance, and serves as an invaluable protection against lead poisoning to the human beings and animals who may employ it for drinking purposes.

   

   

  There are many sources for lead poisoning, chief among them is typically lead based paints.  However, today people also run the risk of exposure to heavy metals through many batteries from all those devices that require Nickel Cadmium or Lithium Ion batteries.  We don’t always think about what is going into our environment when we’re putting more laptop memory in a computer or buying a spare battery, not to mention all the cell phone batteries churning through landfill dumps each year.

• Sea-Water
  
  

  Sea-Water.-Sea-water varies considerably in composition, being, of course, more concentrated, as a rule, in the tropical regions, where evaporation is most active, such, for example, as in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean near the equator. According to analysis, the water in the English Channel contains in 1000 parts‑

  Chloride of Sodium 28.05

  Chloride of Magnesium…………………….. 3.66

  Sulphate of Magnesia 2.29

  Sulphate of Lime ……………………………. 1.40

  Other Saline Materials ……………………….. .76

  Total Solid Matter…………………….. 36. 16

  Besides these, and perhaps contributing largely to the healthful qualities of sea-water, there exist in the ocean small quantities of iodine and bromide, and extremely minute amounts of some of the common metals. It has been found that, by dissolving a little common salt and carbonate of soda, lime and magnesia in distilled sea-water, its taste is rendered much more agreeable; and this plan, it is said, is adopted in the Russian navy.

  – - –

  As in the last section where they talk about distilling sea water for drinking on ships, this talks about some of the other materials that can be extracted during the distillation process.  With the exception of salt extraction some of these other materials don’t seem terribly practical.  Times do change however, and if water is extracted every bit of material that comes with it has to go somewhere whether it can be sold in bulk for mass production of vitamins or horse supplements or what ever.