DETECTION AND MEASUREMENT OF STREAM POLLUTION 1 
By M. M. Ellis, Ph. D., Sc. D., In Charge, Interior Fisheries Investigations, United States Bureau of 
Fisheries , and Professor of Physiology, University of Missouri 
u* 
CONTENTS 
Introduction 
Stream pollutants and aquatic environ- 
ment 
Physical and chemical characteristics 
of waters suitable for fresh-water 
stream fishes 
General field methods 
Water samples 
Mud samples 
Plankton 
Fresh-water mussels 
Fish 
Equipment 
Dissolved oxygen 
Hydrogen-ion (pH) limits 
Ionizable salts 
Specific conductance 
Carbon dioxide 
Fixed carbon dioxide 
(chiefly calcium and 
magnesium carbon- 
ates) 
Free carbon dioxide 
Iron 
Ammonia 
Suspensoids 
Depths 
| Stream pollutants, etc. — Continued. 
Physical, etc. — Continued. 
Ionizable salts — Continued. 
Temperature 
Bottom conditions as affected by 
stream pollution 
Action of pollutants on fishes 
Injuries to gills and external 
structures 
Pollutants entering the body of the 
fish and exerting true toxic action. 
Lethality of specific substances occurring 
in stream pollutants 
General consideration 
Test animals 
Goldfish 
Daplmia magna 
Water types 
Specific lethality tables 
Osmotic pressure and sodium 
chloride 
Acids 
Compounds of various metals 
Miscellaneous compounds 
Lethal limits of 114 substances which may 
be found in stream pollutants 
Acknowledgments 
Bibliography 
Page 
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INTRODUCTION 
The menace of pollution to our inland streams and rivers is too well known to 
require definition. In fact, unsightly and noisome conditions due to pollution are 
encountered so often that they have come to be accepted by many as the usual order 
of things. It is true, however, that many cases of pollution could be remedied and 
the streams so affected restored to an acceptable state for recreation, fishing, and 
1 Bulletin No. 22. Approved for publication. Sept. I, 1936. The present study is presented as the first of three dealing with 
pollution hazards to fresh-water fishes. The second will discuss trade wastes and chemical effluents, and the third, the cumu- 
lative effects of dilute pollutants. 
365 
