Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 106]

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104 first specimen of well water is less than the average of what may still be considered good drinkable water; but the organic matter in good well water should never exceed four or five parts in a million. Hence, specimens Nos. 2, 3 and 4 must be regarded as very poor drinking water, while specimens Nos. 5, 6 and 7 are utterly unfit for that use, The condition of the cisterns mentioned above, and the use to which their water was put, were unknown to me, and in order to pursue this subject further, Mr. C. F . Cook, at my request, undertook the examination of the well and cistern water of this vicinity. From his work, which will be given in full in another part of this report, I take a few interesting facts. In all, one hundred analyses were made. Eighty-six of these analyses were of water from wells, and fourteen of water from cisterns. The smallest amount of organic matter found in well water was; 1.65 parts in a million parts of water. The largest amount was 248.95 parts in a million parts of water. This large proportion of organic matter was contained in a well located near a barn, and no doubt was due to the drainage from the barn-yard. The average amount of organic matter in the eighty-six wells was 23.61 parts in a million parts of water. In this average the well containing 248.95 parts in a million is included. By excluding this well the average would be reduced to 21 parts in a million of water.. The smallest amount of organic matter found in cistern water was 7.05 parts in a million parts of water, and the largest amount was 179.55 parts in a million. The average amount of organic matter in the fourteen cisterns examined was 81.45 parts in a million, or nearly four times as great as that of the wells examined. In selecting the cistern waters for examination, those were chosen which were known to be used as drinking water and for general family purposes, and which, for this reason, were kept in the best possible condition.

DETEBMINATION OF OBGANIC MATTEB IN BIVEB WATEK, ETC.

BY HENRY A. WEBER, P H . D.

At the request of J. H. Bauch, M.D., Secretary of the StateBoard of Health, I undertook a large Series of determinations of organic matter, chiefly in the rivers of the State. As the results of the investigation properly belong to the State Board of Health, I give them here without comment, merely to show a part of the work done in the Chemical Department. The specimens of water