Sun itavy Chemistry.
25 I
sible to ascertain i f it by itself is capable of causing fat necrosis ; but it seems highly probable that the lipase causes fat.splitting after some other ingredient of the pancreatic juice has injured the cells. F. P. UNDERHILL.
The Influence of Sodium Chloride upon Qastric Secretion. BY LYMAN BRUMBAUGH STOOKEY. N . J.’ Med. News, 82, 383. -Excessive quantities of sodium chloride apparently exert an inhibitory influence on hydrochloric acid secretion and thereby may impede gastric digestion. (This is in harmony with Miller’s observations. ) T h e injected sodium chloride is apparently not directly converted into hydrochloric acid in the stomach to the extent, if a t all, which one might theoretically expect, assuming the theories of Koeppe and Brasch to be tenable. F. P. UNDERHILL. An Experimental Study of the Sugar Content and Extravascular Coagulation of the Blood After Administration of Adrenaline. BY CHARLESH. VOSBURGH A N D A. N. RICHARDS. A m . J . PhysioZ., 9, 35-5z.-The intraperitoneal injection of adrenaline chloride, as well as the application of that substance to the pancreas, gives rise to a marked increase of sugar in the blood. This hyperglycaemia makes its appearance immediately after the administration, reaches its maximum in from one to three hours, and may continue for over fourteen hours. Simultaneously with hyperglycaemia occurs a decided diminution in the time of extravascular coagulation of the blood. This phenomenon appears to be due also to the application of adrenaline to the pancreas. T h e cause of this form of hyperglycaemia, as indicated by comparative analysis of the blood flowing to and from the liver, is to be attributed, in great part at least, to an increased sugar formation in that organ. F. P. UNDERHILL. SANITARY CHEMISTRY. The Salford Sewage Purification Experiments. Eng. Record, 47, 109-111. A Dozen Years of Sewage Purification Experiments at Salford, England. Eng. News, 49, rg~--~gz.--These two articles are both reviews of a paper read by Mr. Joseph Corbett, Borough Engineer of Salford, England, a t a meeting of the Sanitary Institute, of Great Britain, and reported at length in the Engineer, London, December 28th, 1902. The paper is of decided interest, as it gives an account of a number of experiments, tried on a very large scale, during the past twenty years at Salford, and which have resulted in the process now adopted, i. e . , chemical precipitation followed by roughing filters, and continuous intermittent filtration. Salford is a manufacturing city of 250, 000 inhabitants, and its sewage can be characterized as an acid
232
Review fo, American Chemical Research.
manufacturing sewage, containing considerable amounts of surface water. T h e purification works, built over twenty years ago, were for the purification of sewage by chemical treatment, and during the first ten years a great number of precipitation processes were tried, depending on special chemical precipitants. T h e best and cheapest results were obtained by the use of lime and a salt of iron, either sulphate or chloride of iron, but none of the precipitatiou processes gave an effluent answering the requirements of the Mersey and Irwell commission, i. e., that one iniperial gallon of a sewage effluent shall not contain a greater amount of nitrogenous organic matter than is represented by one grain of albuminoid ammonia, or a greater amount of oxidizable matter than will be oxidized in four hours a t a temperature of 2 0 ’ centigrade by one grain of oxygen, using potassium pernianganate as the oxidiziiig agent. Beside experiments with different chemical precipitants the ‘ ‘ International Process,” using “ferrozone” as a precipitant, and polarite as a filtering material, was tested a t three different times, and the “ Webster Electrolytic Process’ ’ was carefully investigated. T h e International Process showed what could be accomplished by the filtration of a tank effluent, but failed to convince the authorities that polarite had the valuable qualities claimed for it, better results being obtained by using the cheapest available materials, such as cinders, crushed clinkers or coke breeze. T h e Webster Electrolytic Process, passing the sewage between cast-iron plates alternately connected with the positive and negative poles of a dynamo, is, according to Mr. Corbett, the most scientific and most successful of any of the processes studied, and it would have been adopted at Salford but for the inability of the company pronioting the process to finance so large a scheme. Experiments on the filtration of sewage tank effluents have been carried on for the past twelve years. These experiments were undertaken chiefly to determine the best material to use for filters, the depth of filters, and the best method of applying the tank effluent so that it shall trickle down through the filling material. T h e contact system of treatment was never tried, as, according to Mr. Corbett, it is “ illogical,” and does not deal with so large a flow as the trickling method. As a result of the experiments which are given in more or less detail, Mr. Corbett helieves that cinders are the best material for filters ; that a depth of eight feet is, as a rule, the best ; and that distribution is best effected by passing the liquid through sprinkling jets in which the liquid is sent whirling, by passing it through inclined holes in the lower part of the jet, before reaching the top outlet, the whirling motion throwing out the water in a very fine spray over a circle about twelve feet in diameter. The result of all the above research work has been the adoption of the following method of treatment, which was put into
Sanitary Chem zstry .
233
operation at Salford last summer. Milk of lime is first added to the sewage, then a solution of copperas and the sewage is passed through tanks (average time of passage six hours), then through roughing filters of gravel three feet deep, normal rate 4,000 imperial gallons per square yard. From the roughing filters the sewage is distributed by the sprinkling jets on the cinder beds. T h e average rate proposed is 500 imperial gallons per square yard, or half a million gallons per acre, each bed being used twelve hours per day, though higher rates (one million gallons per acre), on experimental filters working twenty-three hours per d a y , and run for one year, have given a satisfactory effluent. As an appendix to the paper, various tables are given, showing the analytical results obtained in certain of the experiments and also a table giving data regarding the Webster Electrolytic ProLEONARD P. KINNICUTT. cess. Air Testing in Tunnel Construction. BY JOSEPH W. ELLMS. E E ~Record, . 47, 246-247 (rgog).--In nearly all underground
excavations, carbon dioxide, marsh gas, and sometimes hydrogen and sulphide of hydrogen, may be present in greater or less amounts, and carbon monoxide may be formed as the result of the combustion of inflammable gases and the use of certain explosives. I n the construction of a tunnel, 4 11s miles long, a t Cincinnati, a part of the new water works system, several explosions having occurred, it was decided to test the air of the various headings daily to determine the amount of inflammable gases present and the efficiency of the ventilation. T h e ordinary niethods of gas analysis were not considered as well adapted for determining the amount of explosive gases present with the rapidity necessary to make the tests of immediate value, and it was decided to use the ‘‘ Shaw Gas Tester,” a mechanical device, by which different proportions of illuminating gas and air can be mixed in various proportions, and the amount of air that it is necessary to add to the illuminating gas so as to cause an explosion of a definite degree of force, quickly determined. This apparatus, de5cribed in detail, and shown in two cuts, is, according to the author, 50 sensitive that a difference so small as 0.1to 0 . 2 per cent. in the amount of explosive gascontainedin the air which is added to the illuminating gas, can be detected. T h e explosive gases thus far encountered in the Cincinnati tunnel, have generally entered the tunnel at points where there was leakage of water into the headings in considerable quantities. They also occur in pockets, and are liberated in the course of blasting, or permeate the rock in places and leak into the excavation because they are under slight pressure. An approximate analysis of the gas bubbling up through the water in one of the headings, gave hydrogen 31 per cent,, marsh gas 45.7 per cent., carbon dioxide 2.7 per cent., besides nitrogen and oxygen. Traces of inflammable gases
231
Review of American Chemical Reseaich.
were not infrequently found, but during the larger portion of the time were absent from the majority of the headings, and when present usually amounted to less than I per cent. About 1900 tests for inflammable gases and 1700 for carbon dioxide were made during the past year. T h e carbon dioxide was determined by absorption in barium hydroxide solution, and titration by LEONARD P. KINNICUTT. oxalic acid.
German Ozone Water Works. Electrical World and Engineer, 41, 119-120. T h e Ozone Water Works, a t Wiesbaden two and Paderborn. Scieizt$c Amer., 88, 132-133.-These articles give an account of the first use, on a practical scale, of ozonized air for the purification of a water supply. An abstract of an account of the experiments at Martinikfelde, which resulted in the building of the plants a t Wiesbaden and a t Paderborn, was given last year ( f h i sR e v . , 24, 317). T h e plant now constructed a t Wiesbaden is capable of sterilizing 60,000 gallons of water per hour, while the plant at Paderborn, though similar in construction, is designed to sterilize only from 13,000 to 15,000 gallons per day. T h e plant at Wiesbaden is divided into two independent units, each havirig its own machinery, ozone apparatus, and sterilizing towers. T h e engine room contains two 60 H. P. Wolf locomobiles, two direct and two alternating current generators, two centrifugal pumps, to pump the water to the top of the sterilizing towers, and two blowers to force the air to the ozonizers. T h e direct current generators drive the pumps and fans, while the alternating current generators supply the current for high voltage coils of the six transformers (about 8.000 volts). T h e ozonizers, of the Siemens type, 48 in all, are divided into two units of 24 each, and each unit into 8. Each of these smaller units is connected with one of the six transformers. T h e sterilizing towers, constructed of brick and 13 feet high, are arranged in two separate rows of 4 towers each, one of which is always held in reserve. Two cross walls divide each tower into 4 compartments, and each compartment is filled to the height of 6 feet with coarse gravel. T h e water to be purified passes through this sand and meets the current of ozonized air forced upward through this sand. T h e quantity of water passing down through the sand in each tower is I I ,000 gallons per hour, and the volume of ozonized air passing up through the sand is 31,000 gallons per hour. T h e cost at Wiesbaden, including the pumping of the water, repairs, and interest is about two cents per thousand gallons of sterilized water. A careful study of the bacteriological effects produced by this ozonizing plant, has been made by Professor Proshaus and Dr. Schuder, of the Institute for Contagious Diseases, at Berlin, and also a t the Fresenius Institute, at Wiesbaden. T h e reports are most favorable, stating that ozonized air of the concentration obtained by means of the Siemens apparatus,
Saititary Chemistry.
235
and employed in sterilizing towers with suitable gravel-filling, destroys all pathogenic germs, and almost all of the harmless water bacteria. T h e ozone concentration obtained a t Wiesbaden is not stated in either of the above articles, it is probably about the same as that obtained in the experiments a t Martinikfelde, i. e . , 2 1 / 2 to 3 grains per cubic meter. LEONARD P. KINNICUTT.
Septic Tank a t La Grange, Ill. BY WILLIAMB. EWING. EnK. Record, 47, 2 0 0 (1903).-Description of a closed septic tank, 100 feet long, 30 feet wide, I O feet deep, divided into three compartments. T h e sewage of the town is domestic sewage, diluted with storm water ; the time of passage through the tank is from twelve to eighteen hours. T h e tank was put in operation in November, 1901. Very little crust was formed on the liquid during the winter. I n the middle of May, 1962, it was I foot thick. No odor is perceptible in or near the tank. T h e paper is of interest on account of the statement that though the action of the tank was successful, at the end of one year's continuous action, when the liquid in one of the compartments was drawn off, there remained a deposit of only 1 inch in thickness. LEONARD P. KINNICUTT.
The Septic Tank: I t s Place in the Treatment of Sewage. BY LEONARDP. KINNICUTT.Eng. Record, 47, 16, 1903,T h e writer, after giving a brief outline of the development of the septic tank, and stating that it is now generally recognized as an essential part of modern bacterial purification processes, gives the reasons for such recognition, and his opinion, based on experiments made in England and in this country, as well as upon results obtained in actual practice, as to what can be accomplished under different conditions by the use of the septic tank. As to the place of the septic tank in the treatment of sewage, the writer says : I ' To sum up in one sentence the place of the septic tank in the modern methods of sewage treatment, I should say that in the majority of cases it is a valuable adjunct to the method of intermittent filtration, and an essential adjunct in the methods of treatment by contact beds and percolating filters. ' L E O N A R P. D KINNICUTT. Alum in Water. A. H. Low's flodification of the Logwood Test. BY ELLENH. RICHARDS. Technology Quarterly, 15, 351-353 (1902).-In Volume 4 (1891, p. 194) of the Technology Quarterly, a method for the detection of alum in water was described by Mrs. Richards. This method has been modified by A. H. Low so that one part of alum in 8,000,000parts of water can be detected. T h e directions given are as follows : Logwood solution : " Take two grams of logwood chips and boil for one minute in a platinum dish with 50 cc. distilled water. Decant
236
Review of Americau Chemical Research.
the solution and boil again for one minute with j o cc. of water. Decant this and boil a third time with 50 cc. of water. Thislast 50 cc. of liquid is used for the alum test, and. if kept in platinum, will remain unchanged for at least three days. T h e test : Boil 50 cc. of the water to be tested in a platinum dish to dispel carbon dioxide, add three drops of the logwood solution and continue boiling for a few seconds to develop the color, Decant into a glass flask, cool quickly under a water tap. Blow into the solution carbon dioxide from the breath, by means of a glass tube, until there is no further decolorization. Transfer to a Nessler tube for comparison with standards similarly prepared. Allow to stand several hours before taking the final reading. Glass dishes cannot be substituted for platinum in the above processes. h blank made with distilled water, if not completely decolorized by the carbon dioxide in the breath, will give a test perceptibly fainter than that produced by one part of aluminuin sulphate in 8,000,000 parts of water. Aluminum hydroxide will produce a tint almost as strong as a salt of aluminum in solution. T h e aluminuni hydroxide can be removed from a water by clogging a filter with a little aluminum hydroxide, washing the filter until washings give no test, and then filtering the sample to be tested, through the filter. T,EOTARD P.K I N S I C I - T T .
llunicipal Water Supplies and Their Examination. BY \VILG. BISSELL, M. D. Philadel@’a Medical Jourzal, August 3 0 ~1902.-The author, after noting several epidemics of typhoid fever that have occurred through the use of contaminated water, and the problem that confronts all municipalities, large or small, of providing a pure and wholesome water, free from pathogenic bacteria, takes up the question as to the best method of determining if a water supply is contaminated by sewage. H e considers t h e chemical analysis as of comparatively little value, especially if all the local conditions regarding the sonrce of the water are not known, and that in determining the source of pollution the bacteriologist can render far greater service than the chemist. and that by far the most valuable test as indicating the source of contamination is that devised by Stone for detection of the colon bacillus, In the words of the author, T h e continued presence of the colon bacillus in quantities of water not exceeding I cc. in amount, should be considered as representing a danger signal.” T h e paper concludes with a description of Stone’s method of detecting and determining the number of colon bacilli in a water, and the opinions that have been expressed by the leading sanitary experts as to the conclusions to be drawn froin finding colon LEONARD P.K I s X I C G T T . bacilli in a water supply. LIAII
I ‘
