Untitled article | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, November 5, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 21

IMPURE WATER.—

An exchange furnishes us with the following facts, which are of interest and importance to every one. Set a pitcher of iced water in a room inhabited, and in a few hours it will have absorbed from the room nearly all the respired and perspired gases of the room, the air of which will have become purer, but the water is utterly filthy. This depends on the fact that water has the faculty of condensing, and thereby absorbing all the gases, which it does without increasing its own bulk. The colder the water is, the greater its capacity to contain these gases. At ordinary temperature, a pint of water will contain a pint of carbonic acid gas, and several pints of ammonia. The capacity is nearly doubled by reducing the temperature to that of the ice. Hence water kept in a room awhile, is always unfit for use, and should be often renewed whether it becomes warm or not. And for the same reason, the water in a pump stock should all be pumped out in the morning before any is used. That which has stood in the pitcher over night is not fit for cooking water in the morning. Impure water is more injurious to the health than impure air, and every person should provide the means of obtaining fresh, pure water for domestic use.