Edwin J. Howe

“ While there is no lack of authority to prove the value of animal charcoal as a filtering material, the claims of vegetable charcoal seem to me to make it more serviceable. Vegetable charcoal is "the solid residuum of the destructive distillation of wood." It is insipid and inodorous, it is insoluble in water, it is but little affected by either acids or alkalies. The ash consists chiefly of carbonate of potash, silica, lime, and the oxide of iron. Vegetable charcoal has a strong deodorizing power. ”

“ It may be truthfully asserted that it is impossible to procure perfectly pure water. "Even distilled water and fresh rain-water contain some ammonia, carbonic acid, and other matters which detract from their purity; while the best water from rivers, wells, ponds, and tanks, contains a large number of chemical compounds, chiefly salts." The skillful use of the microscope would condemn the water from many sources for drinking purposes which now is considered pure. ”

“ The conclusion from the above quotations is, not that one should abstain from drinking water on account of the difficulty in obtaining it pure, but that proper precautions should be observed to obtain it pure. Water is Nature's means of slaking thirst, and with its refreshing properties combines valuable therapeutic qualities. ”

“ We notice the salutary influence of water-drinking upon many of those who resort to the so-called mineral springs which abound in the country. It is not necessary that these springs should hold abnormal quantities of salts of any kind to effect cures; it is only necessary that the water should be pure. Ordinary springs, such as are found in every farmer's pasture, are curative springs if the waters are used freely by those who suffer from certain gastric or renal difficulties. ”

“ I would answer, by filtering the water slowly through properly adjusted vegetable charcoal placed in an earthen receptacle of some kind so that the water will not come in contact at any stage of its passage through the filter with metal of any kind. Cool the filtered water by placing ice under or around the vessel in which the water is contained, but do not put the ice into the water, or its impurities will be liberated by melting and contaminate it. Acting on these suggestions, I believe clean drinking-water may be obtained in any family, and, with clean water, less sickness. ”

“ Buck says, "There is no material known which can be introduced into the small space of a tap-filter and accomplish any real purification of the water which passes through at the ordinary rate of flow."
The various complicated closed filters, filled with any material which can not be removed for cleansing, condemn themselves. No amount of pumping water through them at different angles, which is at all likely to be used, can cleanse them of the impurities that adhere to the mass and in the pores of the filtering material used. ”

“ The various metal filters in which the water comes in contact with metallic surfaces, either iron, lead, tinned iron, or zinc, are objectionable from their appreciable influence upon the water retained in them for any considerable time. Pure block-tin is the least objectionable of any of the metals. ”

“ The various forms of filters that are screwed to the faucet have only to be hastily examined to be discarded, as there is not sufficient filtering material in them to be of much utility, and they very soon become foul and offensive. ”

“ But these and other similar contrivances can not be thoroughly cleansed; after the most thorough rinsing, some impurities will remain in the pores of the stone. Spongy iron and carferal are open to the same objection; they will answer well for a short time, but soon become contaminated by pollution retained in their pores. Sponge, cloth, and felt, unless cleaned every day or two with hot water, will do more harm than good, and the average servant-girl will not clean them or any other filter unless under the eye of her mistress. ”

“ Polluted water that has been frozen, though improved by the freezing, does not become innocuous. "Ice and snow may be the means of conveying malarial poisons to places at a distance," by distributing organic matter held in suspension. ”