THE RIVER SEVERN 

 CONSIDERED AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER 



WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE 



QUALITIES OF WATER IN GENERAL 



BY 



J. H. GARRETT, M.D., F.L.S. 



READ TO THE COTTESWOLD CLUB, FEBRUARY 19th, 1894 



I. The Qualities of Water 



By the ignition of the carefully prepared component 

 gases of water it is possible that absolutely pure water 

 may be obtained, but it is safe to say that in Nature no 

 such thing exists. Whether water occur in its gaseous, 

 liquid, or solid form, it is mixed with, or has taken into a 

 closer associateship matters gaseous Hquid and solid in 

 greater or lesser proportion. When water takes the form 

 of vapour it passes into the gases of the air and is mixed 

 with them, and though it leaves all non-volatile matters 

 behind, it carries with it matters volatile. In its conden- 

 sations into the liquid form it washes the air, and brings 

 down gaseous and suspended matter, so that as rain it is 

 impure before it touches the ground. In its liquid state 

 it is Nature's great solvent and carrier, and although some 

 of the foreign material is shut out from its ice crystals 

 when it freezes, its impurities are never all so shut out, 

 but the resulting ice even after repeated freezings is still 

 H 



