26 o 
The Ghost of the Season. 
[May, 
[Copy.] 
Results of Analysis expressed 
Number 
^Description. 
Total 
Organic 
Organic 
of 
Sample. 
Solid 
Impurity. 
Carbon. 
Nitrogen. 
A. 
••• ••• ••• 
I0 7‘7 
2*179 
0*566 
— 
Bedford Water 
108*4 
2*042 
1*017 
Hardness. 
- x. 
Temporary. 
Permanent. 
Total. 
A 7*9 
40*7 
48*6 
Bedford Water 2*2 
32*8 
35'° 
must have been identical. Two Winchester quarts were 
filled with this water by the officials of the Town Council, 
sealed, and despatched to Prof. Frankland for analysis. The 
one was forwarded diredt to London, whilst the other was 
sent to a gentleman in Bedford, who at once sent it on to 
Prof. Frankland. Neither of these bottles was ever in the 
custody of any person connected with the Native Guano 
Company. The results of the analysis of the two samples 
were in course of time received by the Leeds officials, the 
one diredtly and the other via Bedford, and are indeed in- 
structive. They are here subjoined. The originals, duly 
signed, are in existence, and can, I am told, be produced if 
needful. 
Thus it will be seen, if we turn to the most important 
points, that of these two identical samples the one which 
had come diredt from Leeds is represented as containing 
nearly double the amount of “ previous sewage contamina- 
tion ” which was present in the other ! Again, whilst the 
difference between the two samples in “ total solid im- 
purities ” and in chlorine is trifling, the difference in 
“ organic nitrogen ” is nearly 50 per cent, that in “ ammo- 
nia ” nearly 30 per cent, and that in “ nitrogen as nitrates 
and nitrites ” above 80 per cent. What can we think of 
analytical methods by which such results are reached ? Yet 
it was on the faith of such methods of analysis that the 
ABC process for the purification of sewage was condemned 
by the Rivers’ Pollution Commission. It is on the faith of 
one of these analyses, exhumed, so to speak, for the 
