Water and its purification : a handbook for the use of local authorities, sanitary officers, and others interested in water supply / by Samuel Rideal.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Water and its purification : a handbook for the use of local authorities, sanitary officers, and others interested in water supply / by Samuel Rideal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    34/436 (page 14)
    Hippocrates* speaks of the injury to general health occasioned by drinking impure waters. The effect of marshy waters in causing ague, dysentery, &c., is so well recognised that the term “ paludism ” has been introduced for it. Animal matter of recent origin and undergoing rapid change is a specially dangerous feature in drinking water. In the putrefaction effected by bacteria it is broken up into simpler organic com- pounds with evolution of gases, chiefly carbonic acid and nitrogen, which may give the liquid the sparkling property already alluded to. The intermediate pro- ducts include enzymes, amido-acids like glycocine, leucine, tyrosine, and others, and a number of alka- loidal bodies or amines, such as ethylene-diamine, * Treatise rrcpt ac'puv vSdraiv ToVajy, Vol. I., p. 532, Kvihn ; Vol. II., p. 2G, Littre. The passages in Chapter VII. relating to water are worth quoting as illustrating the early knowledge of the subject. Ilepl 5e twv Aonruv vSdrwv BovAopat SrptriicraaQat, a re 4 cm vocrwSea Kat a vAie'tvorara Kat 6k6<t<x a<p’ Hlaros Ka/ca 4ikos yivecrOat Kat Sera ayaffa. n A (Terror yap pepos ^upBaAAcrat 4s rrjv vyielr/v. Disadvantages of standing water in marshes and lakes, rots ere irlvovst <nrAr)vas pev aid peyaAous ITvat Kat pepvwpevovs (have always an enlarged and hardened spleen). Then he condemns hard waters from stony districts, at irpyou 4k nerpeaiv crKArjpp yap aviyKi) ctvat. In the eighth chapter he passes on to the consideration of rain and snow waters, ra pev ivv upBpta Kovcpirara Kat yAvicvrard 4cm Kat Acirrbrara KatAaprrpdrara (rain waters arc the lightest, sweetest, thinnest, and most limpid). On p. 30 (Littre) ho gives the warning to boil the water, Se'erat Sc cMpctpctrOat Kai dicourfiecrOat (filter) 4t 8c pi] oSppv Tcrxct rrovT]pr)v. Snow and ice water are condemned, ra Sc anb x‘°vos Kai KpvcrraAAwv irovrjpa rravra. At p. 40 (Littrd) Kai cprjpl dpctvov ctvat roTcrt rratSlotcri rbv hvov ws iSapccrrarov StSdvat ij tree or yap ras cpAcBas (vy Kate t Kat l-uvavdivet. An allusion in Pliny states: “Nube latent amnes puti, sere tantum mixti: terra ealeem, salem, lutum addit, homo sordem ” (the rivers rest pure in the cloud, mixed only with air: the earth adds lime, salt, mud ; man adds filth).