St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 31 text:

Ghz Iiuritiratinn nf Brinking Mater ATER and air are indispensable for the sus- taining of the life process in animals. The limit of human endurance of conditions M D if h - - W ic prevent the consumption of water is probably about ten days. A daily allow- L!-Q ance is absolutely needed both in food and as drink. Hence the plentiful supply of this necessary chem- ical compound that was rated so long as an element. Na- ture is never prodigal but of water there is an abundance. I XJJ Y' ll tn 5? Yet our water supplies never furnish absolutely pure liquid. All the sources we dep-end upon derive their supplies directly or indirectly from the condensed moisture of the atmosphere. Rain or melted snow collects in lakes or passes to underground caverns to form wells. The following enu- meration of sources embraces all those we depend upon for drinking water: Rain water, surface water C such as ponds and riversj, ground water ffrorn rain held by the sub-soill. and deep collections called artesian water. By passing through the air or percolating through the ground all this water is contaminated, more or less, by sus- pended or dissolved material. Hence a supply of water may be rated as wholesome, or suspicious or dangerous accord- ing to the debris it carries. Spring water and that from deep wells is usually of good quality and is very palatable. Water from unpolluted streams and clgan stored rain water has not an attractive Havor. Surface water that has poured over cultivated land is always suspicious even if it has an agreeable taste. Rivers carrying sewageuj-and shallow wells are to be rated as dangerous until an analysis has proved the contrary. Polluted water may carry living organisms which will produce disease in the human body or it may contain sub- stances which will dispose a person to infection by depress- x . ff, -.

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Eeautgka Flea T But yesterday a dream,-a dream come true To-day,-to-morrow .idle past. Thus Hew Thy brief career. The dream Was fair, but fairer still the gleam Of life that shone to make the vision real. Farewell to palace grand and castle wall! The fruit of fertile minds by hands must fall. No more shall flower meet In glassy lake its image sweet, Nor secrets of the morning dew reveal. No more shall fount in idle pleasure spray Its guarding water sprites the livelong day: No more shall spires above To blushing skies unfold their loveg Nor spreading domes their azure color steal. Ah! Woe, that thou must leave! For why should men Build up a kingdom to destroy again, And why my plaint in vain? Oh! Let each beauty there remain, While eyes can see and throbbing hearts can feel! Uh! Let a path still twine its graceful way Around each silv'ry lake in full arrayg While Howers sweetly fair Refresh with perfume mild the air, QL And stamp each hidden nook with Nature's seal. So heed my plea! Let castle stand and lake Remain, and each fair thing for Beauty's sake A Be left untouched, unshorn Of tinted grandeurs that adorn. So heed in Beauty's name my last appeal! Thos. H. Foster.

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28 IGNATIAN ing the vigor. Again deep wells are likely to furnish water filled with dissolved mineral matter that renders it unfit for many household uses. This is hard water. As a supply of some twenty-five gallons a day for each individual must be provided and an equal amount is needed for animals and manufactures, engineers are seldom able to find an available supply of wholesome water large enough to fill the reservoirs of cities. In the Middle States rivers must be tapped yet all of them are polluted at some time with infectious matter. On the Eastern, and especially the Western, seaboard mountain streams are often available and the problem of purification is not so necessary nor expensive as when the rivers are concerned. The methods in use depend upon subsidence of debris, filtration of impurities or chemical treatment for the success- ful removal of dangerous substances, be they gases or or- ganisms or minerals. Polluted rivers will be purified in time by aquatic animals or plants and to a certain extent by the dissolved oxygen taken from the air. Living organisms which produce dis- ease are killed by direct exposure to sunlight. By one or all of these means of purification river water contaminated with sewage is rendered wholesome in the course of time. Thus the Mississippi, carrying the outfiow of the Chicago river, is purified before it reaches St. Louis-some 250 miles away. Filtering Plants. Filtering plants always have subsidence basins into which the water from the intake pours. VVater in motion will carry heavy debris with ease, as the carrying capacity increases enormously in proportion to the velocity of flow, but once arrested the debris falls by gravity and hence subsidence is both a cheap and effective process for the removal of undesirable material. The effect of light 5' ,. -yi