140 DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY OF BRISBANE, ETC. 



" Fonspagrives, taking up the question of the nocuity or 

 innocuity of waters kept in zinc vessels, or in those which are 

 galvanised {i.e., coated with zinc), investigated it by the data 

 furnished by records of the public health, by the experience of 

 naval hygiene, and by experiments on man and upon animals. 

 He does not, however, adduce any experiments of his own. A 

 French Government Commission had previously, on what 

 appeared to Fonssagrives insuflficient grounds, decided that water 

 kept in vessels of zinc is injurious to health. Boutigny had 

 likewise attributed very grave e£fects to the use of waters thus 

 stored, and even imagined that epilepsy might be produced by 

 the ingestion of zinc oxide. Fonssagrives concluded, as the 

 result of his investigations, that the insoluble preparations of 

 zinc produce no digestive disturbances except when taken in large 

 doses, and that they do not accumulate in the economy. He 

 admits that water in contact with metallic zinc becomes coated 

 with zinc compounds, but that these — zinc hydrate, hydrocar- 

 bonate, and ulmate — are almost insoluble. Rain water passing 

 over the metal may, nevertheless, remove some zinc in solution, 

 as zincate of ammonia. These compounds, he states, exist in 

 waters in such small quantities that no injurious effects can, in 

 his opinion, result from their use. He adds that the facts drawn 

 from toxicology, naval hygiene, public hygiene, and therapeutics, 

 all attest the innocuity of water that has rested upon zinc. In 

 consequence, the use of zinc and galvanised iron cisterns, of zinc 

 pipes, and of galvanised iron pipes, for the conveyance of water, 

 cannot be considered dangerous to health. 



"Others, nevertheless, hold a different opinion. Pappen- 

 heim states that, though the amount of zinc present in such 

 waters as have been spoken of, is not always sufficient to produce 

 poisonous effects, since it is indubitable that they have frequently 

 been employed for considerable lengths of time with impunity, 

 yet the amount of metal taken up by large quantities of water 

 may be sufficient to produce deleterious results. He states, 

 moreover, that in France, spite of Fonssagrives's assertions, the 

 water tanks of ships have had to be re-galvanised and tinned, 

 and that zinc vessels have to be especially avoided. Dr. Parkes 

 likewise states that Dr. Osborne, of Bitterne, has frequently 

 observed injurious effects from the use of waters impregnated 

 with zinc. 



" Of the fact that water does, under certain conditions, act 

 energetically upon zinc and upon galvanised iron, I have had 



