Water analysis for sanitary purposes, with hints for the interpretation of results / by E Frankland.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Water analysis for sanitary purposes, with hints for the interpretation of results / by E Frankland. 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.

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    In the analytical examination of the water supplies (whether actual or contemplated) of towns, and the in- vestigation of well and other waters in connection with the propagation of disease, facility of manipulation is ohviously a minor consideration in comparison with accuracy of result. In snch cases, I deem it essential to have recourse to the process of analysis described in Part II; for, in order to gain a sound basis for an opinion, not only should the pro- portional amount of organic elements be determined, but also, as far as possible, the nature of tbe organic matter, that is to say, whether it is of animal or vegetable origin. Trustworthy information on these points can only be obtained by observing the proportion of carbon to nitrogen in the organic matter found in the water, and it is chiefly in respect of such details that the more simple methods of esti- mation fall short of the accuracy which is essential. Hence, I strongly recommend that recourse should be had to the combustion process of analysis in all cases of real importance. It must be borne in mind, however, that a correct deter- mination of the various matters contained in a sample of water is not the sole purpose of the investigation, but simply the means to an end. The desire of those who send water for analysis is not to obtain an array of figures, which, how- ever accurate, affords little information to the unskilled public; their chief object is to procure the authoritative opinion which is deducible from the data thus furnished. Therefore, in order to assist the experimenter in drawing inferences from the facts acquired, I have given, in the respective chapters, an explanation of the interpretation to be put upon each determination; and to supplement these details, I have appended at the end of the volume an extended list of representative analyses (Appendices Nos. IV, V, and VI), and a reprint of the general conclusions adopted by the Rivers Pollution Commissioners, as the result of their