14 AMERICAN MINERAL WATERS. 



was used also in the production of bottled soft drinks. It would 

 seem, therefore, that a conservative estimate of the total value of 

 the industry in 1908 would place it at probably $20,000,000. The 

 value of most of these waters depends to a large extent upon the 

 constituents, which give to them their therapeutic character or 

 their hygienic quality. It follows, therefore, that an accurate chemi- 

 cal and bacteriological analysis is a matter of the greatest importance 

 to the public the consumers of the product to the physicians who 

 prescribe the waters, and to the commercial interests involved. 



In a preliminary study of 41 samples of representative American 

 mineral waters made by Haywood 1 it was found that the analyses 

 compiled by Walton, 2 Crook, 3 and others were often inaccurate, 

 incomplete, and for most purposes of no value. This is in no sense a 

 reflection upon the authors named, but is due to the fact that many 

 of the analyses were made years ago by methods more or less crude 

 and inaccurate and frequently by persons of no particular skill in 

 water analysis. And probably in some cases, though the analysis 

 was correctly made, the samples before reaching the chemist had 

 been so doctored or sophisticated that they did not in any way repre- 

 sent the supplies from which they purported to come. This assump- 

 tion is warranted in some instances from a comparison of the analyses 

 made by this Bureau with previous analyses made by reputable 

 chemists, in which the disagreement is so marked and the changes 

 so unlikely to have been produced by natural causes as to lead to but 

 one conclusion, namely, that the previous analyses were not made 

 on authentic samples. This fact should be considered in connection 

 with the tabulated statement of the results of the advertised analyses 

 appearing upon subsequent pages; it also emphasizes the need for 

 this investigation, to the end that the public in general and physicians 

 in particular may have authoritative information as to the character 

 of a water used or prescribed. 



COLLECTION OF SAMPLES AND METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 



When it was decided that it was desirable and necessary to make a 

 complete study of the character of the mineral waters of the United 

 States, the assistance of the Geological Survey was sought and the 

 Hydrographic Branch of that service cooperated with the Bureau of 

 Chemistry in the undertaking. It was from the first recognized that 

 if the results were to be authentic and to represent truly the waters 

 named, it was necessary not only that the samples should be obtained 

 under the strictest official supervision but by inspectors whose judg- 

 ment could be relied upon to take them directly from source and to 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Chemistry, Bui. 91. 



2 Mineral Waters of the United States and Canada, 1883. 

 Mineral Waters of the United States, 1899. 



