OF WATER FOR ORGANIC MATTER. C9 



dark and dirty aspects of these in impure water being 

 very striking. 



" I am not, however, inclined to look on my work here 

 as useless, although common observation has done its part 

 so well. I believe it to be of great importance to us to be 

 able to apply tests so as to prove the truth of popular 

 belief, which is formed by long and tedious processes. 

 With these little chemical experiments we may do the 

 work in an hour, which the instincts and expensive ex- 

 perience of whole generations were required to perform. 



"I believe that in these results we have a method of 

 examining the coasts which will be valuable to us as a 

 sanitary police. It can be aj)plied wherever there are 

 sheets of water. 



" I will not say tliat these numbers represent the relative 

 wholesomeness of places on the land and on the sea ; but I 

 think it probable that they may fairly be used as com- 

 parisons of places on the sea only. When the land is in 

 question, there are many sources of emanations to be 

 considered. 



"To be complete, the examination ought to be con- 

 tinued for several years. Last year was not an average 

 one ; there was much rain. 



"There are floods in the Clyde which bear down so 

 much water that the brown peaty matter is readily seen 

 below Dunoon ; but on these occasions there is no fear of 

 putrid matter, as the water carried down is so abundant. 

 At the same time there will be a certain degree of purity 

 less at the sea-entrance, corresponding to the greater 

 degree of purity caused by the flood at Glasgow. By this 

 it is not meant that the water as low as Cloch or Dunoon 

 is affected by more than an infinitesimally small amount 

 of the sewage matter which is washed past Glasgow in 

 floods, whilst at other times the eff'ect has ceased, as before 

 said, at least on the north, below Helensburgh. There is, 

 however, a little muddiness observable for many miles, and 

 this will be found even in places where the oxidation of all 

 the readily transported matter has taken place. 



