148 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      March,  1904. 
for  determining  how  the  magnesium  actually  exists  in  the  water,  as 
the  combination  of  the  different  bases  and  acids  to  represent  their 
existing,  forms  in  solution  in  the  water,  is  often  a  very  hard  question 
to  decide. 
Wm.  G.  Toplis,  a  well-known  expert  in  the  examination  of 
drinking  water,  read  a  paper  on  "Some  Refined  Methods  in  Water 
Purification"  (see  page  116),  which  was  illustrated  with  specimens 
of  cultures,  which  he  presented  to  the  College.  The  paper 
elicited  considerable  discussion.  In  reply  to  a  number  of  questions 
by  Warren  H.  Poley,  Mr.  Toplis  stated  that  there  were  hardly  likely 
to  be  any  bacteria  growing  in  the  service  pipes,  that  the  effluent 
waters  from  the  filters  contained  as  low  as  six  bacteria  per  cubic 
centimetre,  also  that  the  number  varied  from  fifteen  to  fifty  as 
against  the  river  water  before  entering  the  filter,  which  contained 
from  5C0  to  1,500,  or  even  more  organisms  per  cubic  centimetre. 
Mr.  Toplis  spoke  highly  of  the  competency  of  the  engineer  corps 
connected  with  the  filtering  plant  in  Philadelphia,  and  thought  that 
ultimately  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  would  be  proud  of  the  finished 
work. 
He  also  stated  in  reply  to  Mr.  Poley  that  the  magma  formed  by 
the  addition  of  \y2  grains  of  alum  to  a  gallon  of  water  would 
remove  even  as  much  as  95  per  cent,  of  the  bacteria. 
Mr.  Toplis  stated,  in  answer  to  a  question  by  Mr.  Kline,  that  the 
river-bottom  sand  is  preferable  to  sand  from  other  sources  in  that  the 
particles  of  sand  are  already  surrounded  by  the  gelatinous  envelope 
formed  by  bacteria,  which  is  serviceable  in  the  purification  of 
water  and  so  serves  as  a  naturally  prepared  material  for  filtration 
purposes,  thus  saving  time  in  the  so-called  ripening  of  the  filter. 
The  subject  of  the  origin  of  outbreaks  of  typhoid  fever  was 
discussed  and  in  the  main  it  was  thought  to  be  due  to  sewage 
contamination  in  water  and  milk.  Professor  Lowe  spoke  of  an  out- 
break among  the  members  of  one  of  the  fraternities  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity some  years  ago,  which  was  traced  to  raw  oysters  which  had 
been  gathered  in  beds  exposed  to  sewage  contamination.  Professor 
Kraemer  referred  to  the  fact  that  during  the  past  summer  he  had 
an  opportunity  of  visiting  a  number  of  the  truck  gardens  in  the 
vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  and  that  the  usual  way  of  enriching  the 
land  was  by  the  use  of  "  privy  manure,"  which  is  not  infrequently 
collected  in  large  pools  on  the  farms.  He  stated  that  he  thought 
that  this  might  be  a  source  of  disease  in  certain  cases,  as  the  sewage: 
