504 
ACTION OF WATER ON ZINC, ETC. 
ACTION OP WATER ON ZINC; EFFECTS OF DRINKING 
WATER CONTAMINATED WITH ZINC. 
The experiments of Boutigny, Schaueffele, and Lan- 
gonne have long since shown us that zinc dissolves in 
potable waters at ordinary temperatures ; that distilled water 
and rain water dissolve zinc more readily than hard waters, 
especially those that are rich in chalk. They have shown, 
however, that hard potable waters do not take up zinc to an 
appreciable extent, for the zinc speedily becomes coated with 
an insoluble layer of zinc hydrate (hydrated oxide), or, more 
commonly, of hydro-carbonate (hydrated oxide and car¬ 
bonate) ; but still a portion of the metal remains suspended, 
whilst a smaller portion, perhaps, passes into a state of true 
solution. Thus, all kinds of vessels in domestic use, whether 
made of zinc or “ galvanized,” impart to waters kept in, or 
allowed to pass through them, a certain quantity of zinc. 
The quantity of zinc thus taken up may even be sufficient 
to render the water opalescent, and unfit for drinking pur¬ 
poses. 
Fonssagrives,* taking up the question of the nocuity or 
innocuity of waters kept in zinc vessels, or in those which 
are galvanized (i. e. coated with zinc), investigated it by the 
data furnished by records of the public health, by the ex¬ 
perience of naval hygiene, and by experiments on man and 
upon animals. He does not, however, adduce any experi¬ 
ments of his own. A French Government Commission had 
previously, on what appeared to Fonssagrives insufficient 
grounds, decided that water kept in vessels of zinc is injurious 
to health. Boutigny had likewise attributed very grave 
effects to the use of vraters thus stored, and even imagined 
that epilepsy might be produced by the ingestion of zinc 
oxide. Fonssagrives concluded, as the result of his investi¬ 
gations, that the insoluble preparations of zinc produce no 
digestive disturbances except when taken in large doses, and 
that they do not accumulate in the economy. He admits 
that water in contact with metallic zinc becomes coated with 
zinc compounds, but that these—zinc hydrate, hydrocar¬ 
bonate, and ulmate—are almost insoluble. Rain water 
passing over the metal may, nevertheless, remove some zinc 
in solution, as zincate of ammonia. These compounds, he 
states, exist in waters in such small quantities that no in¬ 
jurious effects can, in his opinion, result from their use. He 
* ‘ Ann. d’Hyg./ t. xxi, p. 64. 
