The Daily Astorian

Lead in Drinking Water.

One of those rare accidents, a fatal case of poisoning by lead in drinking water, is reported from Granville, New York. A house occupied by a Dr. Nelson was supplied with water from a cistern, which collected the rain from roofs and gutters painted, it would appear, with lead. The suction-pipe to the cistern was also lead, and two or three feet of this was constantly immersed. Both Dr. Nelson and his wife were attacked, the former dying in a few days, while the wife is reported to be in a critical condition. It would be very desirable to have a further investigation into the case made by experts. That lead paint should have been used on the roofs seems very improbable. To say nothing of its cost, which would be much greater than that of the common mineral roof paints, its appearance would prevent its employment in any but extraordinary cases. Vermilion is used for brightening a mineral paint for roofs, but lead, unless indeed, in the form of red-lead, or minium, would injure rather than improve the color. The pipe in the cistern would corrode and dissolve slowly in rain water, but hardly with such rapidity as to cause sudden and fatal illness, unless this were the closing form of a long process of gradual poisoning. Whatever may be the truth of the matter, the case may serve to remind us of the importance, where rain-water from roofs is to be used, of guarding against all possible sources of contamination. Lead suction-pipes are too often used where enameled iron would be cheaper and better, and cisterns are left not only dirty inside, but so imperfectly covered that extraneous matters, animals, and insects, easily get in and add their decomposing bodies to the general impurity.