p. 640 | SIMPLE WATER TEST

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 40.

SIMPLE WATER TEST.

UNDER the above title Florida Health Notes, the official bulletin of the State Board of Health, gives the following, which it may be well for our readers to use and preserve:—

A very good method, and simple in its procedure, to ascertain the quality of drinking water, is by the permanganate of potassium test, which chemical loses its purple color in solution through oxidation in the presence of organic matter.

By placing twelve grains of caustic potash and three grains of permanganate of potassium in an ounce of distilled water, a solution is had by which the purity of any given water can be ascertained. If to a glass of water one or two drops of this permanganate solution imparts a decided color, the water is drinkable; but if, on the contrary, the solution immediately loses its color and disappears, the water should be rejected for drinking purposes as probably dangerous.