562 
Purification  of  Water  Supplies. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
1   December.  1904. 
the  completion  of  a  filtration  system,  is  a  question  to  be  decided  by 
the  conditions  governing  the  case.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  own 
mind  that  under  certain  circumstances  such  use  would  be  justified, 
and  the  results  would  more  than  repay  any  outlay  of  money  and 
labor. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  a  question  of  an  efficiently 
filtered  water  as  compared  with  a  water  containing  a  minute  quantity 
of  copper,  but  it  is  a  typhoid  or  algae-laden  water  versus  copper 
water.  S^me  of  you  may  object  to  the  use  of  small  quantities  of 
preservatives  in  meat,  but  if  it  is  a  question  of  preserved  meat  or 
decayed  meat  until  the  new  supply  arrives,  I  do  not  think  you  would 
hesitate  very  long.  The  use  of  copper  for  the  removal  of  algae  and 
bacteria  is  necessarily  a  remedy,  and  each  water  supply  requires  a 
special  prescription  according  to  the  various  conditions  involved. 
In  one  case  where  copper  was  used  for  the  purpose  of  destroying 
the  algae,  the  bacteria  were  reduced  95  per  cent.,  and  while  sewage 
bacteria  were  found  before  treatment,  they  disappeared  entirely  after- 
wards. In  another  case  where  a  large  storage  reservoir  was  flooded, 
owing  to  the  breaking  of  a  levee,  the  bacteria  were  reduced  from 
over  5,000  per  cubic  centimetre  to  less  than  50  per  cubic  centi- 
metre. Again,  in  the  case  of  a  spring  which  was  accidentally  pol- 
luted, and  which  gave  rise  to  over  fifty  cases  of  typhoid  in  less  than 
a  week,  the  use  of  copper  completely  sterilized  the  water,  and  it  was 
possible  to  continue  using  the  spring  within  five  hours. 
Since  the  use  of  copper  for  the  destruction  of  typhoid  and  cholera 
has  been  more  prominently  brought  before  the  public,  a  number  ot 
most  interesting  cases  have  been  called  to  my  attention,  which  seem 
to  add  considerable  weight  to  the  laboratory  or  experimental  side 
of  the  question.  Many  of  these  have  already  been  referred  to  in  the 
press,  but  the  fact  that  certain  communities  have  for  centuries  used 
water  from  copper  vessels  to  avoid  cholera,  that  workers  with  cop- 
per are  popularly  recognized  as  being  immune  to  this  disease,  that 
the  use  of  copper  sulphate  in  Indianapolis  years  ago  effectively 
stamped  out  cholera— all  of  these  facts  with  many  others  are,  it 
seems  to  me,  worthy  of  consideration,  even  though  they  require 
careful  scientific  investigation  to  make  them  of  value. 
The  question  of  the  use  of  copper  in  medicine  is  one  I  cannot 
discuss,  although  I  should  like  to.  It  is  daily  being  used  in  quan- 
tities so  much  greater  than  would  ever  be  added  to  a  water  supply, 
