Boiled Water

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 11.

Boiled Water.—Many think that boiled water is pure; but this is by no means the case. In the first place, it does not kill all the germs. A. L. Wood, M.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., is quoted as saying that it kills only the feeblest and those the least injurious. Professor Percy Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., a noted English scientist and recognized authority on water, says, we are told, that “the germs which propagate epidemic or zymotic diseases may be boiled three hours, and yet not be destroyed.” In the second place, if all the germs are destroyed, their dead carcasses remain as well as the poison they excrete, and the water containing this dead matter furnishes an excellent soil for the propagation of other germs. In the third place, the longer water is boiled, the more impure does it become, unless it be boiled in air-tight vessels. If a gallon of water be boiled to a pint, the pint contains nearly all the impurities of the gallon. And yet boiled water may be beneficial in two ways: (1) Boiling softens the water, or deposits the mineral on the bottom and sides of the kettle; (2) If the water be filtered soon after boiling, the organic substances, the dead carcasses, will be removed.