Aet. I. — The Examination of Waters. 

 By J. Cosmo Newbery, B.Sc, C.M.G. 



[Bead 16th April, 1885.] 



This subject, being one of the very greatest importance to 

 the well-being of any community, has at the present day a 

 literature of its own in almost every modern language, and 

 numbers of able men — engineers, medical men, microscopists, 

 and chemists — are devoting themselves to the study. The 

 results of their labours show the necessity of having pure 

 drinking water, and the absolute elimination of all possible 

 sources of contamination by sewage matter. 



For a number of years past I have been examining, in a 

 more or less irregular manner, the waters of Victoria — in 

 former years, with the assistance of the late Mr. Manley 

 Hopwood and my late assistant, Mr. Frederic Dunn, now 

 our public analyst, and more recently with Mr. Savage and 

 Mr. Dunn. Some of our analytical results have appeared in 

 the publications of the Department of Mines ; and I must 

 admit that if these are taken into consideration without fall 

 knowledge of all the circumstances connected with the 

 method of collection and the sources of supply, they form a 

 most confusing table, and without such information give but 

 little idea of the real condition of the water from a sanitary 

 point of view, especially when taken singly. For instance, 

 an undoubtedly contaminated well-water from Kyneton gave 

 us in parts per million: Free ammonia, 019 ; albuminoid 

 ammonia, 22 ; while rain-water from the Observatory 

 gauge gave : free ammonia, 1*088 ; albuminoid ammonia, 

 0"947. The rain-water was the first which fell after a long 

 drought, and had washed a contaminated atmosphere. 



A chemist may, by any of the well-known methods, 

 determine the amount of nitrogenous matter contained in 

 the water, as free or saline ammonia, albuminoid ammonia, 

 nitrites or nitrates, and from the results obtained, with or 

 without an estimation of the amount of combined carbon 

 and chlorides present, form some idea of its character ; but 



