November 25, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
427 
was again treated with ether, the ether separated from 
the sulphide of lead, evaporated and the acid crystal¬ 
lized. 
The crystals produced resembled those as prepared in 
experiment No. 1. 
Chemical Properties of Polyyonic Acid .—Polygonic acid, 
as prepared in experiments 1 and 3, has a green colour, 
.acrid and bitter taste. It has strong acid properties, 
eompletely neutralizing bases, and uniting with them to 
form salts. 
Aqua ammoniae, caustic potash and sodic carbonate, 
.added to the crystals or a solution of the crystals, pro- 
•duced an intense yellow colour, and tho crystals were 
dissolved. Nitric and hydrochloric acids added to crys¬ 
tals or solution of the acid produced a yellow colour. 
Sulphuric acid added to the crystals or a solution of poly¬ 
gonic acid, produced a dark red colour, which gradually 
became black. Basic acetate of lead added to a solution 
of the acid or its salts, produced a yellow precipitate, 
soluble in the mineral acids. Nitrate of suboxide of 
mercury produced a yellowish-white precipitate, soluble 
in the mineral acids. Mercuric chloride produced a 
green precipitate, soluble in tho mineral acids. Cyanide 
of potassium produced a yellow colour. Ferric chloride 
produced a slight dark colour. Cupric sulphate pro¬ 
duced a slight green colour. Baric chloride, chloride of 
gold, nitrate of silver and chloride of platinum produced 
no change. 
From the above it will be seen that the Polygonum Hy- 
dropiper contains an acid, crystallizable, colouring prin¬ 
ciple upon which the medicinal virtues of the drug 
xuainly depend.— Amer. Journ. of Pharm. 
THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS. 
The Third Report of the Commissioners appointed in 
1868 to inquire into the best means of preventing the pol¬ 
lution of rivers has been recently issued. It reveals an 
amount of injury done through the contamination of 
xivers by the refuse of manufacturing processes carried 
on in certain districts that to those who live in more 
favoured localities might appear almost incredible. A 
few years since a great and just outcry was raised con¬ 
cerning the then filthy state of the Thames. But those 
who lived on the banks of the Thames, even in its worst 
days, could have derived therefrom but a faint idea 
-of what may be seen in certain rivers where a com¬ 
bination of manufacturing refuse and town sewage is 
being continually carried on. The report deals with the 
■effects of the woollen manufacture on rivers and streams 
generally, including the clothing districts of the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, 
the flannel trade of Wales, the blanket manufactories of 
Witney and Dewsbury, the worsted and rug factories of 
Kendal, and the carpet works of Kidderminster, Halifax, 
Rochdale, Durham and Wilton. 
It would be out of place in this Journal to follow the 
^Commissioners step by step through all their inquiries. 
It will be sufficient to epitomize the results of the inves¬ 
tigation of one district and take it as representing ap¬ 
proximately the results in others. 
The first river reported upon is the Aire, the water of 
which, early in its course, is described as being excellent, 
though somewhat hard from its solvent action upon the 
mountain limestone through which it has percolated, 
and containing a larger proportion of organic matter 
than do the streams issuing from the chemically ana¬ 
logous chalk and oolite formations of the southern 
counties. The pollution of the Aire commences at Skip- 
ton ; it then passes Bradley, Keighley, Silsden, Bingley, 
Allerton, Saltaire, Bradford, Baildon, Guiseley, Yeadon 
and Rawdon. By this time it has been fouled by the 
refuse of about 1400 factories and the sewage of more 
than a quarter of a million of people. Some of these 
factories are gigantic in their operations. At the prin¬ 
cipal one, that of Sir Titus Salt, the following quan¬ 
tities of material are used annually:—logwood and 
similar dye-wares, 320,000 lbs.; chloride of lime, am¬ 
monia and oil of vitriol, 15,000 lbs.; gallipoli oil, 40 to 
50 tons; soap, 700,000 lbs.; alkali, 40,000 lbs.; coal, 
14,000 tons. Some idea of the character of the influx 
from tributary streams may be formed from the descrip¬ 
tion of Bradford Beck given by the Commissioners. 
They say that at the time of their inspection it left tho 
town a black, filthy, offensive stream, even above the 
sewer outfall emitting offensive gases, and could scarcely 
be distinguished from the sewage itself. But the volume 
of water and the subsidence and deposit that is continu¬ 
ally going on is so great, that at Kirkstall Bridge, above 
Leeds, the river is only moderately polluted. 
At Leeds the river receives the sewage of a population 
now estimated at 270,000, and the refuse of at least 400 
manufactories. The marked effect of such a mass of pol¬ 
lution, even upon a large river, is seen by a comparison 
of the analytical results yielded by samples of water 
taken at Kirkstall Bridge and below the Leeds sewer 
outfall. By the time the river has reached Kirkstall 
Bridge the soluble polluting materials have been in¬ 
creased in the form of organic carbon 3-3 3 times, and 
organic nitrogen 5’21 times, the proportion contained in 
the water at its source. This increase represents the 
addition of '5241b. of organic carbon and ’066 lb. of or¬ 
ganic nitrogen to every 100,000 lb. of water. But in 
passing Leeds the river receives a further increase of 
'601 lb. of organic carbon and '045 of organic nitrogen ; 
so that in regard to soluble matters the polluting effect 
of the single town of Leeds is not much less than the 
aggregate fouling produced by all the towns and fac¬ 
tories above it. The nature of some of the filthy liquids 
contributed to the river by the town of Leeds may be 
judged of by the following result of the analysis of the 
esparto liquor from a paper mill:—Parts in 100,000 : 
total solid matters, 4038; organic carbon, 938'845 ; 
organic nitrogen, 76-816; ammonia, 1*116; chlorine, 
58. The corporation of Leeds have no jurisdiction over 
the Aire, which flows through the middle of the town. 
Twenty years ago the river was comparatively clean, 
now it is a black and filthy stream. Irrespective of the 
prejudicial influence its present state must exercise over 
the health of the town, considerable evidence was fur¬ 
nished to the Commissioners that a large money loss 
was thereby occasioned. 
Ten miles below Leeds the Aire is joined by the 
Calder, and at the weir near the junction at the time of 
the inspection not only the water but the foam upon it 
was black. The river Calder at its source consists of 
water of considerable purity. But at Todmorden it is 
entered by the Migelden Brook, a stream so highly pol¬ 
luted by mine water as to be unfit for all purposes; it 
cannot be drunk, it is unfit for washing, and its corro¬ 
sive action on iron is such as to prevent it being em¬ 
ployed for feeding steam boilers. The acidity of this 
brook is equal to that which would be imparted by the 
addition of 8'075 parts of sulphuric acid to every 100,000 
parts of water. The total quantity of sulphuric acid, 
in a free and combined state, was 19-48 parts in 100,000. 
From the spot of the junction of the Aire and the 
Calder the history of these streams is but a repetition of 
what has already been said. Tributary streams bringing 
a mass of pollution, if possible, worse than that of the 
parent river; towns, whose inhabitants are sometimes 
numbered by tens of thousands, pouring in their sewage 
together with the refuse from chemical works, gas works, 
dye and bleach works and tan-yards. It will suffice to 
give here just a few descriptive sentences from the re¬ 
port. At Huddersfield “ films of tar were floating on 
the surface of the foul stream when we saw it.” Below 
Wakefield, “ the river was turbid, and of a dark brown 
colour; an oily film floated on the surface, and the 
water emitted a mixed odour of sewage and gas tar.” 
At Woodlesford the Commissioners were shown a large 
