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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seui clichA, ii est filmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de geuche A droite, et de haut en bee, en prenant le nombre d'Imeges nAcessaire. lies diagrammes suivants lllustrent la mAthode. f errata d to tt le pelure, pon A 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 CxL 1 .^^• ^ I^Bmil' ^\ '^ ,^ X i^^,*,' 11 ^ L^^*^ *V 1 I !^A L.« J^ ■ 5- •\ F. ■> 1 ^.'•^ f |1> W OUR WATEI^ SUPPLY. ♦ fl ©F^AGrpiGAL ©APBF^ BY DF?. fiGNBW ON IPHB SUBJECT. Suggestions as to the Water we Drink, and Where to Set it from. A meeting uf the Histvrical Society was held Thursday evening, Mr. A H. Whitcher, Vice-President, in the chair. The following paper was read by Dr. Agnew on the subject of WATER. If a chemist were asked the question, What is water ? he would answer : Water is an oxide of hydrogen. These tasteless, odorless and colorless gases unite in the proportion of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen ; or, by weight, one part of hydrogen and eight parts of oxy- gen to form water. Water is a fluid, and has the following physical properties when pure : — It is tasteless, odorless, colorless and trans- parent ; a iK>werful refractor of light, a bad conductor of light and electricity, and very slightly compressible. It is at its greatest density at 40' Pahr., it be- comes solid at 32", and is vaporized at 212° Fahr., and is in the liquid form only at temperatures lying between these two extremes. Its specific gravity is 1, which is the unit to which all speciiic gravities are refeiTcd. Water exists in yreat abundance on the earth, about three-fifths of its sur- face being covered with water. This grand reservoir is the source whence all the supplies for the operations of nature and the wants of man are derived. With- out the oceans this fair world would be a barren waste. No cloud would intercept the sun's fierce rays; no bubbling spring would cheer the thirsty wayfarer; no purl- ing stream would gladden with its soft music; no umbrageous tree would lure with its cool shade; no "wee crimson tip- pit flower would soothe the eye. Water is an almost universal solvent; hence it is never found pure in nature. Rain water, which is considered the pur- est, contains carbonic, nitrous, nitric, sul- phurous and sulphuric acids, and va- rious ammcmiacal and calcium salts, as also nitrogenous oi^nic matter; and occasionally microscopic plant« ! such as the Protococcus pluvialis, and others of a low order. Where rain water has percolated through the earth, and re- appears in springs, and brooks, and riv- ers, and lakes, it is always charged, to a greater or lesser extent, with salts de- rived from the strata through which it has peixiolated. When the proi)ortion of these in organic impurities is small, the water is said to be soft, and when larger it is called hard. Hard water is the pleasantest for drinking. Absolutely pure water can only be obtained by dis- tillation, and, consequently, distilled water is best adapted to chemical pur- poses. Water for domestic purjwses, and for the supply of towns and cities, is derived from direct rainfall, springs, wells, riv- ers or lakes. Rain water is usually collected from the roofs of houses, and, consequently, is never obtained in perfect purity, but, in- asmuch as the supply from this source would be quite inadequate to the wants of a city for domestic purposes, it is un- necessary to consider it further than to remark that in badly watered districts, where the rainfall at certain seasons is considerable, the water from hill-sides might be collected and stored in artificial reservoirs. There is no important dift'erence be- tween the w ter of springs and wells; both are impregnated with soluble salts from the strata in which they are situated. The quality of water froni these sources, depends upon so many circumstances that little can be said, except in a general way : — The mere fact of water being from a spring or well is no guarantee of goodness, as is sometimes imagined. If the total solids, consisting of sodium and calcium car- bonates, sodium sulphate and chloride, . or magnesium sulphate does not exceed 30 grains per gallon, and there is only a ti-ace of ammoniacal salts, the water may be usable. If at any time such water 5095^^0 hIiuuUI become turbid, or shuukl acquire a taste or smell, it should be looked upon as suspicious. Other things being e(pial, water from aeep wells is the best. Wa- ter from this source has been obtained from the earliest times. Jacob " dig- ged a well," fnmi which many hundred years afterwards water was obtained to quench the thirst of Jacob's Lord, and which has yielded water, pure and whole- some, down to recent times. And who amongst us is not familiar with the old well sweep, and the moss-covered bucket dangling from it: and who among us has not sent it to the dark depths of the old well, and rejoiced at its return, with its }ool, sparkling, limpid freight, and glee- fully sung with tlie poet: "How sweet from tbe Krecn mossy brim to re- celt e it, "As pDised on the curb it Inclined to my lips, "Not a full bliishinR ^oblni could tempt me to leave it. * Tiiough tilled with t'le nectar that Jupiter sipa. Artesian wells are of companitively re- cent date, and may be said to be a "new thing under the sun." The first we have an account of was bored in the district of Artois, in Frano*:?, hence the name. Ar- tesian wells « ow common in France, England an^ •■ .erica. Water from this source is oftb. abundant; and if free from inorganic salts is wholesome, as there is no risk of organic impurity. Rivers yield an inexhaustible supply, but the water is of very variable degrees of purity, both organic and inorganic. During the annual freshets especially, but also on the occasion of a heavy rainfall, the amount of organic and inorganic im- purity is greatly increased, so much so that when a supply is drawn from that source, extensive settling basins are re- ({uired. Generally, however, river water is softer than water obtained from springs or wells. Great lakes are the best of all sources of water sui)ply. They are settling basins of immense magnitude; hence the water (jf great lakes is purer than the water of the rivers that flow into them. Sus- pended inorganic matter falls to the bot- tom ; inorganic matter in solution does not increase, for the out-flow is equal to the in-flow; and organic matter is quickly oxidized, and rendered innocuous. As the water-supply of Winnipeg is attracting a great deal of attention .at present, and as it must become a ques- tion of the greatest importance in the near future, allow me briefly to examine each of those sources from which supply might be obtained. I may pass without remark rainwater and springs, wacer froiu dug or surface wells need only bu men- tioned to be condemned, for water from such a source is mly filtered sewage ; and although it may be mrently pure and sparkling, and unol^ ztional to the taste, it may contain the ^ ' ms of typhoid and other deadly diseases. (During my resi- dence in Toronto I traced i»any cases of typhoid fever to the wells.) There re- mains, then, sition of the water percolating through it. Water from the gianite for- mation is the best, although the chalk ' water is the pleasantnst for drink- ing, on account of the considerable amount of carbonic acid with which it is charged. Limestone waters are of agreeable tasve, but they generally con- tain a good deal of calcium sulphate, and, ' if theie is ar.y dolomite in the formation, ther? may be more magnesium sulphate than most persons would desire, whilst a considerable amount of selenito would ! render the water unwholesome, owing to the amount of calcium sulphate with which it would be charged. From a geological point of view, Mani- toba occupies a favorable position for ob-' taining a good water supply from artesian borings. What now appears level prairie was once a deep Azoic ocean, bounded on the east and west, and probably on the south, by walls of primitive rock. By and bye, in the Eons of the Past, this depression was gradually filled up by sedimentary rocks of the SUurian and Cretaceous systems and referable to the Palftjozoic and Mesozoic periods. Winnipeg, therefore, is underlaid, it may be at no great depth, with limestone of these formations, the water from either of which we have seen to be good, and it is more than probable that a boring of from one to two thousand feet in depth would tap an inexhaustible supply. Artesian wells have stood the test of more than one hundred years. At Grenelle, near Paris, there is a well 1,798 feet deep, which yields 864,000 gallons per diem. Another at Passy, 1,923 feet deep, with a diameter,, at the bottom, of 28 inches, which discharges 5,682,000 gallons per day, to a height of 54 feet above the surface. And at Chicago there are two wells, one 700 and the other 1,000 feet deep and five inches diameter, which P i /' i I beg tt) refer report of the Survey, copied the Department yield 800,000 gallons daily. Computing the poDulation of Winnipeg at 30,000, 460,000 gallons per diem would be re- (ruired for domestic purposes, at tne minimum allowance of fifteen jpillons per canita, per diem, and if all household and manufacturing purposes are included, then 36 gallons for each person, or a total of 1,060,000 gal- lons would be required. It inuy reason- ably be expected, therefore, that one or two such wells of six or seven inches diameter would be amply sutKcient to supply the wants of this city for a good many years. Rivers: — Either the Red River or the Assiniboine might be depended upon to yield an inexliaustible supply for all time to come, but the (quality is none of the best, and as tow^ns and cities are built along the course of these streams, and the general drainage of the country as well as the sewage of cities is dis- charged into them, it cannot be ex]>ected to improve. Por an analysis of the water of these rivers you to Dr. Bell's Dominion Geological into the "Report of «»f Agriculture and statistics of the Pro vince of Manitoba for 1882." The water of the Assiniboine is par- ticularly objectionable on account of the (quantity, nearly eiglit grains to the gal- lon, ot sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts, which it contains. Of course that might be got rid of by chemical means, but the process is both costly and trouble- some. The suspended matter could only be removed by filtration; a process alto- gether too costly to be applied so exten- sively. And when it is considered that the most careful filtration cannot be de- pended upon to remove the germs of ty- phoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and other zymotic diseases, these rivers have but to be named to be rejected as a per- manent source of supply for this city. Lakes : — Unfortunately Winnipeg is not situated near any great lake, but this circumstance is more than compensated for by the elevation of the great lake to which we must ultimately look for a supply of water should Winni- peg, as is expected, become the commer- ciid metropolis of the Northwest. In March, 1883, in a letter to the Free Press, I directed attention to the Lake of the Woods as the grandest reservoir to which we must ultimately look. This beautiful lake, embosomed in laurentian rocks, is about 300 feet higher than Win- nipeg, at a distance of about 60 miles. and as there is no intervening height of land, the water might be brought by a system of canaling and pipes to the top of Bird's Hill, and from that elevation distributed to the city by the oi*dinary svsteni of distribution i) pes. Sliouid this plan be found feasible in practice, the first cost would be the only cost, I regret tliat I have not an analysis of the water from the Lake of the Woods, to which I can refer you, and I alse Miccenafully dis- tributed ill pipes, Thu meeting then adjourned. A meeting of the executive council of the HtKjiety wiis to luive preceded the gen- , oral meeting, but, owing to there being no quorum present it did not bike phice. A number of pro{Mjsitions for members hud consequently to be postponed.