OCR Text |
Show ' We are accustomed to be told that the inost impure water wiU be rendered pure by boiling, and that 1 in this we have au absolute safeguard safe-guard against the danger of water containing disease germ". Now while it is true that boiling will kill the germs of dlease,yit the fact has been brojght to our notice, says Annals of JJggune, by fo high an authority as Dr. Chas. M. t'reson, that while boiling kills the germs or a particular disease, It yet, In reality, renders the water more Impure than it was before, because of the very death of these germs. Dead organic matter is allowed to remain In the water, w hlch is polluted by putrefaction. putrefac-tion. Hence, while boiling is a mo"t excellent precaution against the occurrence of typhoid fever or similar disease", when we have occasion oc-casion to think that the germs of tliis disease exist in tho water that we drink, yet we must remcnibei that this boiling dots not purify the water; it simply removes from it the specific power to produce a specific disease. |