Boiled Water Again by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 23, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 17.

Boiled Water Again.

By Editor

A medical friend writes us that the item on “Boiled Water” in the SIGNS of March 12 saying that zymotic disease germs may be boiled three hours and not be destroyed, is misleading; and he thinks that we must have taken the statement from some “author who was not well informed or else he was a soured crank who did not have a proper regard for truth.” On the contrary, the item was based on a summary of reports of very learned savants in medical lore like Professor Percy Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., said to be a “noted English scientist and recognized authority on water.” How much the newspapers are at fault it is hard to say. If we are to judge by the denials of reports concerning his work by Professor Loeb of Chicago, these men may have never said a thing about water. But our medical friend above—and we are prone to believe him—declares over his own signature in plain typewritten English, that “it has been demonstrated over and over again, and is now accepted as a scientific fact, that from fifteen to twenty minutes boiling will destroy almost all the common bacteria which are the causes of such diseases as diphtheria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, malarial fevers, and many others.” The only safe way doubtless in epidemics is to boil the water unless it is known to be pure, and to boil milk at all times.