ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
ByAlbert R. Ledoux, Ph. D., Chapel Hill, N. C.
ByAlbert R. Ledoux, Ph. D., Chapel Hill, N. C.
ByAlbert R. Ledoux, Ph. D., Chapel Hill, N. C.
Every man must have his vocation; every one his specialty. We are all dependent on others, whenever problems outside of our own line of business or research demand a solution.
Recognizing these truths, every man should feel that he owes a duty to his fellows, and that his motto should not only be “live and let live,†but also “live and help live.â€
No science has done moregratuitously, for the advancement of the human race, than medicine.
No other vocationgives awayso much of invention, research, time, labor, money, to make men stronger, happier, better.
Following out her lofty aims, medicine has called to her aid sister sciences, and united with them to build up new safeguards around humanity.
Thus, for example, medicine has united with chemistry and architecture to form “Sanitary Science,†with all its details ofwork and endeavor for the health of nations, towns, villages and homes.
No question which sanitary science discusses and investigates, is more important than the relation of drinking water to health.
The one grand cry of humanity—yes, of the brute creation, and of the vegetable world too—“is give me something to eat and drink.†Dame Nature furnishes about two hundred and fifty articles to man for food, giving him the greatest variety, from which to choose, when hungry; but, when he would slake his material thirst, she offers simply water. It is the most abundant thing upon earth, as every school-boy knows.
Over two-thirds of our globe is covered with this wonderful liquid—while, on the solid ground, there are comparatively few localities, where water will not be struck on digging. In fact, our soil is one vast sponge, holding in its porous mass—water.
The air around holds water in suspension; the trees and lesser plants hold water in every leaf and branch—while fruits are mainly—water.
Seventy-five of every one hundred pounds of potatoes are—water; one acre of potatoes requires, at the very lowest estimate, twenty tons of water, during the growing season, to bring tops and roots to a perfect healthy maturity.[1]
Eighty per cent. of apples, pears, peaches, &c., is—water.
Eighty-six per cent. of milk is—water. We ourselves are, by weight, mainly—water.
A body weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, if dried till free from all its liquids, would weigh but twenty pounds—while three-fourths, by weight, of the human body is water. If we were to make a box 16 inches square and the same deep, (a cube of 16 inches,) with walls one inch thick, and fill it with water, the ratio of water to wood would very nearly represent the relative proportions of solid and liquid constituents of the human body, both by weight and volume.
Having taking a hasty glance at the magnitude of the demand of organized nature form water, we will pursue it no farther in ageneral way, but confine ourselves toman’sparticular need and the character and sources of supply.
To obtain the quantity, which he requires to meet the demands of his system, a man consumes every year, about three-fourths of a ton, or fifteen hundred pounds of water. Some of this supply comes, of course, from waste and vegetables, which are, on an average, three-fourths water, and from bread, which will average 45 per cent. A certain quantity is also generated in the combustion of food, but the greater proportion is taken in drink.
It will suffice to mention one or two of the uses of this water, which plays such an important part in our system. It gives a medium of circulation—of transportation—to solid, inert substances.
As the great oceans and mighty rivers of earth bear upon their bosoms noble ships, freighted with the wealth of nations, so in the blood the precious corpuscles are coursing, borne on in their life-giving, life-sustaining mission, by the water in which they float. So in the milk and other animal creation, water bears safely a freight of valuable, solid particles, or carries off useless solids in solution. It gives pliancy to muscle and flesh, and serves many another purpose in the economy of the human system.
It can be seen from the outlines we have just given, without the need of a further demonstration, that thequalityof drinking-water is of the utmost importance.
It is strange, but true, that man needs to be protected, even by force, against himself, and this is well exemplified in the matter of drinking-water.
One of the first and last labors of every State or city Board of Health is to prevent men from poisoning their drinking-water or allowing others to do it for them, and to keep them from using it, when it is thus poisoned.
Those who live in the country are often prone to thank God that they live beyond the reach of sewer gases and other poisonous contaminations of city wells; but, before being too confident, let us ask ourselves the question, “are the people of our villages, or on our farms and plantations, entirely free from typhoid fever, diphtheria and other diseases, whose origin is sooftentraced to impure drinking-water.â€
But what is pure water? It may surprise some of our readerswhen we state thatabsolutely purewater, used constantly, is unhealthy!
Distilled water, taken copiously, will soon make one sick. A number of diseases which prevail in some mountain countries are ascribed by many to drinking comparatively pure snow water. Another surprise for some, perhaps! We consider water tasteless, buthadit no taste we would loathe it! But we will return to this hereafter.
There are two tasteless, odorless, colorless gases called respectively, “Hydrogen†and “Oxygen.†If we mix them in a vessel and apply a match, there is instantly a powerful explosion, heat is generated and there is formed—water. The two strange, invisible gases have combined and formed the well-known liquid. Whenever a substance which contains hydrogen, like wood, paper, starch, sugar, &c., burns, it forms water with oxygen of the air. In fact, these two gases are always ready, on the slightest provocation to unite. Rain, or melted snow, approaches nearest to chemically pure water, but all wells, springs, rivers and seas contain dissolved substances, in greater or less degree. Water being the most universal solvent, whenever it comes in contact with the earth, dissolves the soluble constituents of the soil through which it flows, and hence it is that on analyzing water we find solid substances in solution. Streams in their onward course take up more and more matter; rivers flow into the ocean, and in the ocean the maximum amount of solid matter in solution is found. There the rivers have been carrying their load for centuries and leaving it, since water evaporating carries nothing away with it. Besides these solid bodies some gases are dissolved by water. Many waters contain, besides mineral and gaseous bodies, organic matter—living animal and vegetable organisms or decayed substances.
Having noticed the different classes of foreign ingredients in water, let us study them a little more closely, considering their effects and influences on the human system.
Mineral Ingredients.—These are the substances most frequently met with in waters, indeed, organic matter may be said to be rare in comparison to the wide distribution of the inorganic solids. An enumeration will reveal many things with which we are more or less familiar. The most common solids in well, river and seawaters, are lime, magnesia, soda, potash, iron, chlorine, sulphurous acid, silica, phosphoric acid and alumina.
An analysis of an average soil will reveal the presence of all of these substances, so that it is very easy to understand how they got into the water. If we arrange some of them in another way, grouping some together, we will recognize many things common in medicine or every day life. Thus we have
Chloride of sodium or common salt.Sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt.Sulphate of magnesia or epsom salt.Sulphate of lime or plaster.Carbonate of lime or limestone.Carbonate of soda or common “soda.â€
Chloride of sodium or common salt.Sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt.Sulphate of magnesia or epsom salt.Sulphate of lime or plaster.Carbonate of lime or limestone.Carbonate of soda or common “soda.â€
Chloride of sodium or common salt.Sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt.Sulphate of magnesia or epsom salt.Sulphate of lime or plaster.Carbonate of lime or limestone.Carbonate of soda or common “soda.â€
Chloride of sodium or common salt.
Sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt.
Sulphate of magnesia or epsom salt.
Sulphate of lime or plaster.
Carbonate of lime or limestone.
Carbonate of soda or common “soda.â€
The effect upon the system of each one of these substances, or combination of them, when occurring in water is the same as when given in ordinary prescriptions, but there is a point beyond which chemistry has not penetrated; for instance, a glass of some mineral waters, containing but a few grains of solid matter in solution will often produce a quicker and more powerful effect when taken than twice the amount of the solid constituents, shown to be present by analysis, prepared artificially by the apothecary.
The reason of the efficacy of some mineral waters may be in unrecognized combustion of known elements or the presence of substances as yet beyond the power of chemistry to detect.
Four of these common substances mentioned above have a characteristic taste, and as they are all found in nearly every well, it follows that these waters must havesometaste. This, as already stated, is a fact. We, who are accustomed by constant use to one particular well, fail to recognize any taste at all, while a stranger will often detect it at once. Distilled pure water tastes “flat†and very disagreeable to us, because we miss the salts and gases, which distillation has removed.
A chemist will often work in an atmosphere filled with noxious and powerfully smelling gases, but will not be able to perceive them, though a stranger would not only notice them at once, but with great difficulty endure them.
The mineral constituents in well or river water will average five to thirty grains per gallon; while they vary in amount, as shownfrom analysis from one-twentieth to twenty thousand grains per gallon.[2]
Waters containing much lime or magnesia, are called “hard,†and are the only kind found in some sections of our country.
Besides the common mineral constituents of water, there are others, which have been occasionally detected, such as arsenic, barium, strontium, lithium, bromine, iodine, fluorine, zinc, copper, lead, silver, antimony, nickel, cobalt, &c., &c. It will be noticed that many of these are poisonous, but nature suffers their presence, in minute quantities only,—except in rare instances,—while the localities having metallic elements in their waters are few and chiefly among mines and ore-beds. These substances rarely occur in our wells and springs and hence they need no particular consideration here, though, if present, only analysis is a safe means of detection.
Where water contains a large amount of mineral matter, it has a decided effect upon the digestive organs, and, after shorter or longer use, tends to produce diseases, such as dyspepsia, constipation, gravel, &c., &c. But waters with a large enough amount of mineral matter to give them a decided taste, are called “mineral waters†and are used rather as medicine, than as a habitual means of slaking thirst.
The Common Gasesdissolved or imprisoned by well and spring water are carbonic acid, sulpurretted hydrogen and the components of air—oxygen and nitrogen. Of these only one is dangerous—sulpurretted hydrogen—and that is easily detected by its smell, resembling that of spoiled eggs. It gives the characteristic odor to “sulphur†waters. Carbonic acid and air give to waters their sparkling quality—the former being often artificially introduced, as in “soda-water,†&c.
The Organic Matterin well, spring, and river water may be dead or living, and we will consider the two classes separately.
Lifeless Organic Substances.—These may be the remains of organized bodies and plants once living in the water, or animal and vegetablematter from some outside source. The latter is the most frequent source of organic impurity.
In localities where heat and marshes abound, water may often be colored by organic acids and other substances which dissolves, and yet not be appreciably unhealthy. Such waters are common in some countries, and present dangerouspossibilities, should fermentation and putrefaction at any time set in. Decaying fish and animals, leaves, &c., &c., form the ordinary and accidental organic impurities of water. These are unhealthy not only in themselves, but especially because they offer to the germs of disease or pestilence a harbor and sustenance.
As was stated in the early part of the paper, men must be protected from themselves and especially against water of their own poisoning. Nature’s strivings are constantly to make clean the unclean; to dissipate the noxious and to destroy the hurtful, but man by breaking nature’s laws, brings ten fold vengeance on his head. The most dangerous poisons in well water are the drainings of sewers, sinks, yards and privies, and the refuse from towns.
These organic, poisonous matters ooze through the soil into wells and springs, and as before said,maynot show any bad effect for sometime, but sooner or later disease and death will surely visit the unsuspecting household and the physician’s aid be sought in vain, for with every draught of water which passes the fevered lips, the sufferer imbibes new poison and hastens the inevitable end. Moreover, the germs of many contagious diseases, which feed on filth and multiply in foul water, are nurtured and preserved in warm climates through winter weather, by the equable temperature of wells and cisterns, and are ready to start anew on their errand of death, when a favorable moment arrives.
The city of Wilmington is no doubt above the general average of Southern cities in sanitary condition, but what a picture the February number of theJournalshowed us. Think of it!
“There was one well two feet from the privy, two wells four feet from the privy, thirty-three wells ten feet from the privy, two hundred and twenty wells from twenty to thirty feet!â€
The soil upon which Wilmington is located being “nearly as white as the seashoreand as permeable!!â€
It is not our purpose at present to depict the danger of such neglect of sanitary precautions, so much as to point to a remedy.
1st.We say unhesitatingly, if a well shows signs of contamination by sewerage or other like matter, fill it up!
2d.Build all sinks and privies as far as possible from the well.
Through permeable soils and strata, dangerous liquids may ooze to a distance of many feet. We know of cases where wells had been used for years with no bad effect, when suddenly disease and death appeared. The poison, though slow in its course, had finally reached the well and a chemical analysis revealed contamination from privies thirty feet or more distant.
The living organisms which are found in water are, some of them injurious; some beneficial.
Under favorable conditions of light, warmth, &c., countless millions of living things will spring into life in any water; the more impure, the more abundant they will be. If the water is alkaline they will be animalculæ or infusoria: if acid, fungi, algæ, &c.
They are never found in fresh rain water, but abundant in nearly every cistern. The office of infusoria is in water, that of the buzzard on land: they are scavengers, and purify the liquid by feeding upon the decaying matters it contains. But the microscope reveals to us in water, contaminated with sewerage, for instance, minute germs capable of motion, which, as in the case of the infusoria, live on the organic matter, but are believed to accompany if not to cause many forms of contagious disease, filling even the air, in times of epidemic.
To detect many of these impurities and dangers, chemical analysis and the microscope are sometimes indispensable, but the following rules may awaken suspicion and lead to a scientific investigation of the quality of drinking water in some cases.
A good drinking water is perfectly colorless and transparent, without smell or noticeable taste and agreeable to the palate. It should not lose its clearness in boiling and should leave a very small residue on evaporation.
Where impurities are suspected, an analysis should be obtained if possible, if not, filtering through charcoal or sand, or boiling will often either remove or render harmless various dangerous ingredients.
Our State Board of Health have done the people of Wilmingtonand of the whole State a great service in directing attention to this subject. May they go on and prove a mighty blessing to the Old North State. Let us give them the aid and encouragement they deserve.
An excellent substitute [for cod-liver oil] and one often better tolerated, is the fat of pork properly prepared. I direct a thick portion of the rib piece, free from lean, to be selected and allowed to remain in soak for thirty-six hours before being boiled, the water being frequently changed to get rid of the salt. It should be boiled slowly, and thoroughly cooked, and while boiling, the water must be changed several times by pouring it off, and fresh water nearly boiling substituted. It is to be eaten cold in the form of a sandwich made from stale bread, and both should be cut as thin as possible. It is very nutritious, but it should only be given in small quantities until a taste for it is acquired. It is the most concentrated form in which food can be taken in the same bulk, and I have frequently seen it retained when the stomach was so irritable that other substances would be rejected. For this condition of the stomach it may be rubbed up thoroughly in a porcelain mortar and then given in minute quantities at a time. It is made more palatable by the addition of a little table salt, and this will be tolerated, while the salt used for preserving the meat having become rancid, if not soaked out, will produce disturbance even in a healthy stomach. I, some years ago, saved the lives of two of my children, who, on different occasions were suffering from cholera infantum, by feeding them entirely on the fat of pork prepared in the way I have described, and, while nothing else would be retained in their stomachs, not only was it retained, but it also had a beneficial effect on the diarrhœa.—Emmett’s Prin. and Prac. of Gynæcology,p. 102.
A surgeon in London was recently tried and convicted of manslaughter, for not heeding numerous calls from a patient who afterwards died apparently from this neglect.