Drinking-water and ice supplies and their relations to health and disease / by T. Mitchell Prudden.

  • Prudden, T. Mitchell (Theophil Mitchell), 1849-1924.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drinking-water and ice supplies and their relations to health and disease / by T. Mitchell Prudden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    74/168
    It will be seen that the chemist in his exam- inations of water does not, for the most part, get his finger upon the actual causes of disease in dangerous water, but finds only those tell- tale traces of materials which often accompany disease-producing stuff, It should not be in- ferred from this that the examinations of the chemist are unimportant, because it not infre- quently happens that in no other way than by his analysis can we get an indication of dan- gerous agents in water. 2. We come now to the living impurities in water. These again we find to be of two classes: first, animals; and second, plants. We speak here, of course, only of the minute forms of life in water. The tiny animals which may be present in ordinary drinking-water in comparatively small numbers belong largely among the so-called protozoa, or simple forms of animal life, and are, so far as we know, of no importance whatsoever in their relationship to health, and we need therefore give no fur- ther thought to them. Very impure water may, however, contain the eggs of certain animal parasites, which we cannot now consider.