66 Kansas Academy of Science. 



SANITARY WATER ANALYSIS. 



By Prof. E. H. S. Bailey^ University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



>T OTWITHSTANDING all the advances that have been 

 ^ made in analytical chemistry within the past twenty-five 

 years, there seems to be little improvement in the methods 

 employed for the sanitary analysis of potable waters. Refer- 

 ring back to the early methods of analysis that were worked 

 out by Wanklyn and by Frankland, we find that there has 

 been little change in these methods, except in the greater ac- 

 curacy with which they can be carried out. The combustion 

 method suggested by Frankland is so tedious that it is not 

 often followed at present, and the value of the Wanklyn method 

 is seriously questioned, especially by some of the members of 

 the Geological Survey at Washington. 



For the analysis of a water to determine whether it is suita- 

 ble for domestic purposes, the most rational plan so far sug- 

 gested seems to be to determine the nitrogen in the different 

 forms of free ammonia, albuminoid ammonia, as nitrites and 

 as nitrates. But there is considerable nitrogen in the various 

 vegetable substances that may be dissolved in water, espe- 

 cially if the water flows over a rich or over a peaty soil. How 

 shall we distinguish between the nitrogen from vegetable 

 sources and that from sewage contamination, which might 

 mean animal contamination? The organic bodies existing in 

 the soil extract, or in the *'humus," as this soil material is 

 called, are very numerous and complex in structure. The free 

 ammonia as obtained in an ordinary sanitary water analysis, 

 if abundant, is supposed to be largely of animal origin. This 

 is not necessarily true. Some waters are so loaded with or- 

 ganic matter, especially when associated with iron, that they 

 yield a quantity of free ammonia which in other waters would 

 characterize only sewage. This is often the case with arte- 

 sian waters. 



This fact can be best illustrated by referring to the analysis 

 of the water used for supplying the city of Lawrence. These 

 analyses were recently made by Dr. F. W. Bushong. The 

 source of the supply is water obtained from "points" driven 



