Futility of a Sanitary Water Analysis 37 



5. // is contended that the sanitary analysis offers nothing by 

 which one may positively distinguish between a dangerous and a whole-^ 

 some water. 



6. The composition ratios that many good men cherish may be 

 applied indiscriminately to wholesome waters and dilute sewages. 



7. The conventional method of seeking for evidences of pollution 

 by sanitary analyses, or of accepting or rejecting a water upon such 

 evidence, is in its broad and essential features quite misleading, too 

 frequently dishonest, and in some cases absurd. 



8. The dangerous pollution of surface waters can be discovered 

 more readily, and at far less risk and expense, than by sanitary an- 

 alysis. 



9. The term "sanitary analysis" as used in this discussion does 

 not include tests for specific organisms. 



Standards of interpretation by which a water may be designated 

 as "good" are faithfully met by many waters undeniably bad; con- 

 versely the characteristics of a water interpreted as "bad" are pre- 

 sented by many the wholesomeness of which cannot be questioned. 



There is in the presidential address of Professor Leonard P. 

 Kinnicutt, delivered before Section C of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, at New Orleans, La., in December, 

 1905, a concrete statement of intrepretation standards. This state- 

 ment will be used as a basis for the comparisons which follow in this 

 discussion. Such a selection is made, decidedly not for the purpose 

 of controverting the statements or discrediting the position of this 

 distinguished authority, but rather because it is the most admirable 

 resume that has recently emanated from a highly respected and 

 competent source. The following statements are quoted: 



(A) In fresh sewage the amount of nitrogen as free ammonia is from three to four 

 times that of the nitrogen in the albuminoid ammonia, and in sewage efHuents from 

 20 to 30 times, while in peaty water, or water containing an infusion of leaves' 

 the nitrogen in the albuminoid ammonia is from lo to 20 times the nitrogen in 

 free ammonia. Hence, when a surface water, not including rain or snow water, 

 gives a greater amount of nitrogen as free ammonia than it does as albuminoid am- 

 monia, the indications arc that the water has certainly been polluted by sewage, and 

 that the source of the organic matter is of animal origin. With a large amount o^ 

 nitrogen as albuminoid ammonia (over 0.25 milhgram per liter) a ratio of nitrogen 

 of the free ammonia to the nitrogen of the albuminoid ammonia of less than i to 5 

 is suspicious. 



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