80
Review of Americaii Chemical Research.
the second litter gained in fat when 011 plain skim-milk or on skim-milk with sugars. T h e percentage of calcium in the bodies of the pigs diminished with their growth. There was considerable and normal deposition of calcium in the pig, and this was proportional, not to the calcium in the food, but to the growth of the animal. Xot only is the growth in grams of the pigs proportional to the calories in the food, but the number of calories retained in the tissue substance during growth is proportional to the calories in the food. Eighteen to nineteen per cent. of the calories in the food were found stored in the tissue growth of the pigs fed on the three varieties of skimmed milk. There seems to be striking evidence that the suckling pig reared on skimmed cows’ milk confornis to the same laws of tiutrition as the breastF. P. USDERHILL. fed infant. Does Potassium Cyanide Prolong the Life of the Unfertilized Egg of the Sea-Urchin ? BY F. P. GOKHARI ASD R. IV. TOWER. Am. J . Phj’sioi., 8 , 175-183.-The action of potassium cyanide is only an indirect one, i. e., killing or inhibiting the bacteria, and thus giving the eggs a more favorable environment. In all experiments with unsterilized sea-water, the protozoa enter as an important bacteria-destroying factor which must be considered in interpreting the results. Sterile sea-water ‘‘ prolongs” the life of the egg of the sea-urchin much longer than Loeb’s most favorable potassium cyanide solutions. Both the present experiments and those of Loeb’s show that too strong solutions of potassium cyanide, and too long exposure to weak solutions, soon kill the egg. From this the reasonable interpretation is, that the potassium cyanide is a poison for all living matter, but it acts more quickly on bacteria than on sea-urchin eggs ; it is in no sense a prolonger of life. From the fact that unfertilized eggs can be kept in sterile sea-water for eleven days or longer, it would seem that the specific mortal processes of Loeb’s are as yet hypothetical phenomena without any definite experimental basis. F.P.UNDERHILL. SANITARY CHEnISTRY. A Study of the Self-Purification in the Sudbury River, Massachusetts. BY C . E. A. WINSLOW, A. G. WOODMAN, AND PAULHANSEN.Tech. Quarter&, 15, 105-1 2 6 ( 1902) .-The Sudbury River, the authors state, is in dry seasons a small stream polluted at one point, Saxonville, to an extent of about 2 per cent. of its total volume by a liquid, manufacturing waste, three to five times as strong as ordinary city sewage. For 16 miles below this point no additional pollution enters, and at times of low water, comparatively little dilution occurs, and the flow is as a rule very sluggish,-conditions farorable to self-purification. Collec-
Sanitary Chenr istry.
81
tions of samples were made on two different occasions, the first time a t I O points and the second time a t 1 2 points along the 16 miles mentioned, and the samples were analyzed both chemically and bacterially. T h e results are given in tables, also plotted and curves drawn. T h e authors summarize the results obtained as follows : ‘ I The sewage of the Saxonville Mills, on the days observed, introduced into the Sudbury River a considerable amount of nitrogenous matter in the form of albuminoid ammonia, a considerable amount of mineral matter appearing mainly as fixed residue and hardness, and great numbers of bacteria, many of them thermophiles with some intestinal bacilli. During the 6 miles between Stations 1 1 and 7 , organic pollution decreased and pracfically disappeared, a t first rapidly, later more gradually. The thermophilous bacteria were removed during the same period. T h e total number of bacteria present was also greatly reduced, but remained distinctly above the normal during the sluggish flow of the stream to Station 4, 4 miles below. T h e colon bacillus also persisted in appreciable numbers down to Station 4. ( ‘ It appears then that, under certain conditions bacteria, and even intestinal bacteria, may persist in a stream after self-purification from organic material has been effected ; and that they may be found, even in a very sluggish stream, at a distance of I O miles below their point of entrance.” LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. The Second Report:of the Royal Commission of Sewage Disposal. Eng. News, 48, zgI-zgS.-This is a review of the report issued July 7 , 1902. T h e first report of the Royal Commission appointed in 1898, “to inquire and report what methods of treating and disposing of sewage, including any liquid from any factory or manufacturing process, may properly be adopted,” was published in I go1 and consisted mainly of preliminary conclusions. T h e second report is a collection of ten reports made by chemists and bacteriologists appointed by the commission. T h e opening report is by Mr. Colin C. Frye, “The Oxidation of Stale Sewage,” and shows that the oxidation of sewage free from bacteria is very slow and that the oxidation due to the oxidation by the oxygen of the atmosphere is unappreciable. T h e report or reports on the “Manchester Experiments of Treating Sewage’’ are made by Prof. R. Boyce, Dr. McGowan, and Mr. Colin C. Frye and, on the whole, are favorable. In regard to the septic t a n k , Prof. Boyce states : “A combination of the anaerobic and aerobic processes is better than the aerobic alone, but the septic process must be made more perfect than a t present and suspended sludge must be prevented from passing over on to the beds;” “ T h a t it has not yet been proved definitely whether the septic tank is the best means of bringing about the sedimentation and destruction of the solid matter in the sewage, and although the
82
Reziew of Americau Chemical Research.
sludge problem is not eliminated by the septic tank, yet the sludge which the tank produces was not, at Manchester, so prone to decomposition as the sludge from chemical precipitation.” T h e gain in capacity of contact beds after resting, Mr. Frye believes to be due mainly to mechanical shrinkage of the spongy mass present and only in a lesser degree to oxidation, though oxidation does go on actively when a bed is resting. T h e report on “ T h e Bacteriology of Crude Sewage and Sewage Effluents and Standards for Potable and Eon-potable Streams’’ is made by Dr. A. C. Houstan, and is divided into the following heads : Bacteria in Crude Sewage ; Bacteria in Effluents from Artificial Processes ; Bacteria in Effluents froin Land Treatment ; Bacteria in Effluents from Chemical Treatment ; Standards for Effluents to be Discharged into Drinking-water Streams ; Standards for Effluents Discharged into Xon-drinking-water Streams. In this report it is stated that crude sewage contains at least ~,ooo,ooo, and often IO,OOO,OOObacteria per cubic centimeter, while the iiuniber of bacilli coli communi, or other closely allied intestinal forms, is apt to be at least IOO,OOO per cubic centimeter, and streptococci seem to be present to the number of at least 1,000 per cubic centinieter. That the effluents from septic tanks, contact beds, continuous filtration beds, etc., also contain an enormous number of bacteria, and though in some cases the percentage reduction of numbers in the effluent as compared with raw sewage is striking, yet the bacteria contents of crude sewage and effluents both in number and species appear to be very much the same, and the reduction in no case is seemingly so marked as to be very material from the point of view of the epidemologist. T h a t the effluents from bacteria beds are bacteriologically so impure that they may well be excluded from streams that are used for drinking purposes. T h a t the effluents from land treatment, broad irrigation are not, as a rule, fit to be turned into a potable stream, and though effluents can be obtained which in themselves might actually be regarded as potable water of more than average purity. T h e effluents generally contain coli, enteriticidis, sporogenes, and streptococci, T h a t the effluents from chemical treatment, though there does not exist sufficient evidence to form an exact judgment, seem to contain about the same number of bacteria as the raw sewage. As a tentative standard for effluents discharged iiito potable waters, Dr. Houston suggests that they should be “free, or nearly so, from putrescible matter, as judged by cheniicnl standards, and be free from the specific germs of epidemic diseases as judged indirectly, but seemingly in a safe fashion, by the absence of 8.coli. I t might be convenient to fix some limit. g.,that B . coif must be absent from I cubic centimeter of a sewage effluent.” As a standard for effluents discharged into non. potable waters, Dr. Houston inclines to the belief, “that in the case of non-drinking streams, except where oysters and other shell-fish are taken to be (2.
Sun ita vy Chem isfiy .
83
eaten raw, the bacteriological character of the effluent is of secondary importance. But even from this, secondary point of view the bacteriological examination may be of’considerable utility for ascertaining the actual or potential putrescibility of an effluent.” Reports by Dr. Houston on “ A Study of Anthrax Bacilli in Yeovil Sewage,” on the “Subcutaneous Inoculation of Animals with Crude Sewage and other Effluents,” “Some of the Chief Methods Used in the Bacteriological Examinations of Sewage and Effluents by Bacteriologists,” and the report of Alfred MacConkey on “The Longevity of the Bacillm Typhosus in Sewage and Sewage Effluents” are of especial interest to bacteriologists, though Dr. Houston’s report on methods used in the bacteriological examinations of sewage and ,effluents should be read by all chemists engaged in sanitary work. T h e report of Prof. Boyce on the “Effect of Filtration on Reducing the Niimber of Bacteria in the Effluent from a Dibden Contact Bed” is R description of experiments made with effluent from a contact bed at the West Derby Sewage Farm and the conclusions reached were when an effluent containing upon an average of 800,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter and IC,OOO B. coli per cubic centimeter is passed through a depth of 4 feet of soil at a slow rate, viz., between 189,000 and 470,000 imperial gallons per acre per day, there is a very great reduction of the total number of bacteria and in the number of B. coli, and the chances of a very pathogenic germ bacterium like the B. Ti@iosus in the filtrate must be exceedingly small.” T h e report on the Pollution of the River Severn in the Shrewsbury District,” by Prof. Boyce, Drs. MacConkey, Grunbaum and Hill, and the report on the ‘ I Self-Purification of the River Severn,” by Mr. Frye, contain some very interesting results which can hardly be brought out in any brief statement. LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. Inorganic and Organic Sources of Contamination of Water Supplies. B s E. STARZ.Jour. Ass. Eng. SOC.,29, 122-141 ( ~ g o ~ ) . - - A naccount of the various inorganic and organic substances found in contaminated water, including living animal and vegetable organisms. Under inorganic substances it is noted that in a mining region, sulphides of arsenic, antimony, copper, lead, and zinc, are often found iii suspension in the mater. derived not from the soil but from the smelter slacks, while the hydrated oxide of iron is usually due to the decomposition of iron pyrites in the soil. Under organic contamination the paper takes up not only the subject of bacterial contamination, but describes carefully, giving drawings, the principal diatoms and protozoa that LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. are found in polluted waters. A New Turpidemeter. BY CHARLESANTHONY,JR. Engineeriitg News, 48, 2 2 0 (1902) .-A description with drawing of a new instrument for determining the turpidity of water, sent
84
Review of Ainericaii Chemical Research.
with a paper by Mr. Anthony, of Glenview, Hereford, England, which was read at the annual meeting of the New England Water Works Association. T h e instrument consists of two parallel tubes 50 cni. long, and an eye-piece. One of the tubes contains the water and is closed a t the ends by plates of glass ; the other tube contains a Kicol prism. Light transmitted through ground glass reaches the eye in part through the water, and in part through the Nicol prism and is observed through the eye-piece which contains a rotating Nicol prism. By rotatiug the prisni, the illumination from the two sources of light can be compared. LEONAKD P. RINNICTTT. Sewage Disposal at West Bromwich, England. BY A. D. GREATOREX.Eng. Record, 46, 394-39 j (1902 ).-The sewage of West Bromwich amounting to I ,200,000 imperial gallons per day is rather a dilute sewage, containing little manufacturing waste, except a certain aniount of brewery refuse, as no acid or washwaters from galvanizing works are allowed to be discharged into the sewers. Three years ago the town council of TT’est Broniwich, England, caused three large contact beds to be constructed to determine whether sewage like that described could be successfully treated by the contact bed method, at all times of the year. and to determine whether by means of double contact, an effluent could be obtained of sufficient purity to render unnecessary any further purification. T h e results of this investigation has been published by A. D. Greatorex and the conclusions drawn are : ( I ) That the sewage of West Bromwich can be successfully treated by bacterial process ; ( 2 ) that the process is efficacious at all times of the y e a r ; ( 3 ) that the final effluent from the second contact fine-grained bed is sufficiently pure to be discharged into the stream ; (4) that detritus tanks should be provided for removal of suspended matter before the sewage is run upon the beds. T h e report has been accepted by the town couucil, and the method of double contact beds has been decided upon for the purification of sewage of this locality. LEONARD P.KINKICUTT. Report of Sanitary Chemical Water Analyses. BT EDWARD BARTOW. Kansas Universify Scierzce Bzdleti?t, I, 99 ( 1902). This paper consists of 2 5 0 analyses arranged in 1 2 tables. These analyses, made in great part by the students of the university, are of the water of the Kansas River, at Lawrence, of certain wells and cisterns in Lawrence and its near vicinity, of a few springs and artesian wells, and of sonie rivers in Kansas, names not given. T h e methods used were those recommended by the Massachusetts State Board of Health. T h e most important conclusion drawn by the author from the analyses is that a normal I ‘ chloriue map’’ for the region around Lawrence would be very
Sanita r y Chemistry.
85
difficult to make, and, if made, valueless, for chlorine alone can not in that region be used as a test for contamination.
LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. Septic Tank at Bradford, Indiana. BY G. HOUSTAN. Bng. Record, 46, 465 ( 1902).-A description with drawings of a large septic tank a t Bradford, Indiana. A t the inlet end of the tank are two detritus tanks 27 by 7'12 feet, and 8 feet deep. T h e septic tank is a closed cement concrete tank 46 by 17 feet and 7'jr feet deep, divided by plank divisions into three longitudinal compartments so as to be able to vary the time of flow of the sewage through the tank, LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. Intermittent Filtration Sewage Plant at Ridgefield, Connecticut. BY T. H. MCKENZIE. Eng. N e w s , 48, 342 (.1902).-T h e plant consists of acres of intermittent sand filtration beds, and is adapted for the purification of the sewage of a village of about 3,000 inhabitants. LEONARD P. KISNICUTT. Report upon the Experimental Filtration of the Water Supply of Springfield, a t Ludlow, Massachusetts, from December 21,1901to January I , 1902. BY H. W. CLARK. Twenty-First A m z ~ aReport l of the Massacliuseffs S a f e Board of Health, p. 198. -The water supply of Springfield, Massachusetts, has never been satisfactory on account of the odor and taste of the water, which are particularly obnoxious during certain seasons of the year, especially during August and September, and these experiments were made to see if the odor and taste could be removed by sand filters, working a t a practical rate of filtration. T h e filters used in the experiments, eight in all, were small, the largest having an area of '/,,, of an acre, the smallest 1/20,000 of an acre. Sands of different effective sizes were used, and the depth of the sand in the various filters varied from 2 to 5 feet. The rate of filtration ranged from I ,ooo,oooto 5,c00.000 gallons per acre per day. T h e method of working the filters, their action under different conditions, and the results obtained during the year are fully described. All analytical data are tabulated. T h e general result of the experiments showed that all positive odors could be removed by single filtration, except during the period from July 21st, to September 17th. when the number of Anaboena in the water of the reservoir was very large. During this period single filtration through sand-filters at the rates of 2,500,000 and 5,000,000 gallons per acre per day failed to remove the odor and taste, but double filtration, even when the secondary filter was operating a t the rate of iO,OOO,OOOgallons per acre per day removed all odors and all taste. LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. Bacteriological Studies at the Lawrence Experimental Station, with Special Reference to the Determination of B. Coli. BY STEPHEN DEM. GAGE. Tweiity-First Aitnzcal Report of the
86
Review qf Avtericaz Chemical Research
Massachusetts S t a f e Board of Health, p. 398.-An account of the changes in the Lawrence method of determining B. coli and the methods now used. LEOSARDP. KIXXICVTT The Action of Water on Lead and Other Metallic or fletalLined Pipes. BY H. TT'. CLARKAXD FREDB. FORBES.Eizg. N e w s , 48, 303 (1902). A review of the paper on this subject, published in the Pdeiitietli A n n u a l Rejort of' the Massachmeffs S t a f e Board of Health.-The general conclusions of the authors of this paper are that the use of lead service pipes. especially in conuection with ground water supplies containing considerable free carbonic acid, should be avoided wherever possible, and t h a t , if a cement-lined iron pipe is not employed, a tin, or properly constructed tin-lined pipe with a considerable thickness of tin, is the safest and best for general use. I t is evideiit that brass pipe is acted upon but slightly by most of the waters examined, but copper salts are coilsidered to be more harmful than salt5 of tin. LEOXARI)
P.K I N S I C U T T .
As to the poisonous nature of lead the Report of the 3lassachusetts State Board of Health for 1898, stated : " The exact amount of lead which may he taken into the system without producing harm is not definitely known, and may vary witli different persons but it is known that the continuous use of water containing quantities of lead as small as 0 . o j part per IOO,OOO or about 1/33 grain per gallon, has caused serious injury to health." LEOSARD P.KISNCVTT. INDUSTRIAL CHEflISTRY. The Development of the Bituminous Macadam Pavement. BY FREDWARREN: Amer. Gas Light Journal, October 2 5 , I go2 .-The writer describes the new pavement made available for practical use by the efforts of the Warren Rros. Co., and conipares it with the ordinary sheet-asphalt pavement. T h e principles on which the bituminous-macadam pavement wearing surface is combined is the reverse of the principles on which the ordinary asphalt pavement is built. I n the present asphalt or tar pavement, the bituminous cement is used to support fine mineral grains, such as sand, which in themselves have no firmness to sustain traffic, in such a way that the fine mineral grains will be held or supported by the bituminous cement, so that the mortar or mastic will, at all atmospheric temperatures, sustain the weight of traffic and at the same time resist abrasion. T h e bituminous macadam is built on the principle that. independent of the bituminous cement, relatively coarse and fine mineral grains should be combiued in such a way as to have a firmness in themselves to sustain the weight of traffic. The bituminous cement is supported
