574  The  Copper  Treatment  of  Water.  {^eSeS"' 
THE  COPPER  TREATMENT  OF  WATER. 
By  Henry  Kraemer. 
The  purification  of  water  supplies  containing  pathogenic  organ- 
isms being  a  subject  of  such  vital  importance,  it  seems  to  the  writer 
that  any  method  proposed  for  this  purpose  should  receive  careful 
consideration,  not  only  at  the  hands  of  water  engineers,  health  offi- 
cials and  physicians,  but  by  all  those  who  are  in  a  position  to  test 
it,  or  to  contribute  information  regarding  it,  or  to  foster  a  sentiment 
in  favor  of  it,  if  found  to  be  efficient.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the 
writer  undertook  to  carry  on  experiments  for  testing  the  efficiency 
of  copper  in  reducing  the  number  of  micro-organisms  in  drinking 
water.  The  experiments  were  conducted  in  the  microscopical 
laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  and  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr.  John  R.  Rippetoe  for  assistance  in  the  work.  Be- 
fore going  further  it  should  be  stated  that  this  communication  is 
intended  as  a  preliminary  one. 
During  the  years  from  1876  to  1883  Prof.  W.  G.  Farlow,  of  Har- 
vard University,  contributed  some  very  interesting  reports  on  the 
peculiar  condition  of  the  water  supplied  to  the  city  of  Boston,  and 
showed  in  a  paper  published  in  Science  (1883)  the  relations  of  cer- 
tain forms  of  algae  to  the  disagreeable  tastes  and  odors  of  some 
water  supplies.  It  was,  therefore,  quite  natural  that  Dr.  George  T. 
Moore,  who  was  a  student  of  Professor  Farlow,  and  who  has  be- 
come so  closely  identified  with  this  subject,  should  have  become 
interested  in  it. 
One  of  the  earliest  papers  published  by  Dr.  Moore  along  this  line 
appeared  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  (January,  1900^ 
p.  25),  this  being  while  he  was  still  engaged  in  teaching  at  Dart- 
mouth College. 
In  the  Year-book  of  the  U,  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  for 
1902  there  is  a  paper  by  Dr.  Moore,  pathologist  and  algologist,  in 
charge  of  the  Laboratory  of  Plant  Physiology,  on  "  The  Contami- 
nation of  Public  Water  Supplies  by  Algae,"  in  which  it  is  stated  that 
some  new  experiments  were  inaugurated  in  the  Department  which 
promised  to  furnish  another  method  of  combating  pollution  in  water 
caused  by  algae.  It  is  also  stated  that  the  experiments  were  sue- 
cessful  in  exterminating  spirogyra  in  water-cress  beds  where  it  had 
done  considerable  damage. 
