ABSTRACT
The provision of a sufficient safe and suitable supply of water has always been a subject of great public importance. But it is only within the memory of the generation that the character of the impurities occurring in water used for drinking has been completely understood, and that due precautions have been taken in the selection and treatment of water to be supplied to towns for all purposes. The softening of hard waters containing carbonates of lime and magnesia can be effected by boiling the water, when the bicarbonates are decomposed and carbon dioxide escapes. The process of water purification sketched in the foregoing lines is applicable on a small scale to the water derived from wells or pools or streams in isolated country districts unprovided with a common supply. Experiments on Thames River Water, which forms a large part of the supply to London, have led to similar encouraging conclusions.
