342 Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1881. 
are a kind of coarse bread. A sample sent to me for analysis 
a short time ago had the following composition : — 
Water 42-33 
* Albuminous comjjounds (flesh- forming matters) .. 9*44 
Starch, dextrin and sugar 43 "SO 
Woody fibre 2-01 
Mineral matter (ash) 2 • 63 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen 1-51 
Drinking Waters contaminated with Lead. — Of the 87 samples 
of waters intended for drinking and general domestic purposes, 
not a few were found largely contaminated with sewage, or 
similar injurious drainage products, and quite unfit for drinking 
purposes. In four samples I found lead in sufficiently large pro- 
portion to cause serious indisposition and to explain the charac- 
teristic effects which drinking waters contaminated with lead 
produce on the constitution of men and animals. These four 
waters had the following composition : — 
Ko 1. 
No 2. 
No. 3. 
No 4. 
3-92 
4^48 
2G04 
24-92 
Containing — 
•672 
•112 
112 
•896 
1-65 
1-65 
(i^92 
6-92 
none 
••SS 
701 
8^40 
•004 
•001 
•024 
•026 
Organic (albumenoid) ammonia .. 
•003 
•oo:! 
•003 
•004 
strong indications. 
2° 
3° 
11° 
12° 
The water No. 1 was supplied from a large public reservoir, 
and from the main pipes was conveyed a distance of about 200 
yards in a lead pipe to the house, the inmates of which ex- 
perienced symptoms of lead-poisoning from drinking the water. 
Both No. 1 and No. 2, as will be seen, were very soft waters, 
No. 1 containing not quite 4 grains of solid constituents in the 
imperial gallon, and No. 2 scarcely 4^ grains. Unusually soft 
waters are known to act upon lead pipes, and the general im- 
pression is that hard waters do not attack lead, and inay be 
safely conveyed through leaden pipes without becoming con- 
taminated with lead. 
The analyses of the samples marked No. 3 and No. 4, how- 
ever, show that this impression is not always correct, for we 
have here two examples of waters which are moderately hard, 
and, so far as I could judge, quite as largely contaminated with 
