66 IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 



Wanklyii classifies waters according to the amount of 

 albuminoid ammonia present as follows: 



.05 parts per million. Great purity. 



.10 parts per million. Organically safe. 



Greater than 10 parts per million. More or less impure. 



The small amount of albuminoid ammonia present in the 

 deep well waters places them in the class which is regarded 

 by Wanklyn as characterized as being of great purity. 

 This fact that as far as organic contamination is concerned, 

 the deep well waters are pure waters and this consideration 

 aids in the interpretation of the results obtained for free 

 ammonia as Wankyln considers the presence ot free 

 ammonia as follows: 



"If a water yield .000 parts of albuminoid ammonia per 

 million, it may be passed as organically pure, despite of 

 much free ammonia and chlorides; and if indeed the amount 

 of albuminoid ammonia amount to .02, or to less than .05 

 parts per million, the water belongs to the class of very 

 pure water." 



The State Standard is .15 parts of albuminoid ammonia 

 per million which is larger than the amount of albuminoid 

 ammonia in all of the samples except that of Newton. 

 The Michigan standard being the same as that of Iowa. 



The presence of chlorine in the form of chlorides natur- 

 ally does not indicate contamination and the standard of 

 the state board of health of 8 parts per million is of no 

 value for the deep well waters, where the sodium chloride 

 is very high in many samples of water. In the sample of 

 water from McGregor well No. 1 it is seen that chlorine is 

 present to the extent of 967.9 parts per million, and this 

 substance varies from this large amount to a trace in the 

 water from the Dubuque well. When it is considered that 

 the deep well waters contain large quantities of dissolved 

 salts they naturally are associated with the water from 

 mineral springs,* as for example the spring Ems contains 487 

 parts, Spa 35.5 parts, Carlsbad 630, and Wiesbaden 4687 

 parts of chlorine per million. 



♦Smith. Foods, p. 310. 



