The Quality of Water Supplies

The presentation to the Society of a paper on the self-purification of streams, by Dr. Charles G. Currier, and one on fresh water algæ, by George W. Rafter, M. Am. Soc. C. E., is the writer's apology for offering a paper on a subject, which, from its title, might seem better addressed to a health congress than to a society of engineers. But health boards and medical societies are usually powerless to rectify the evils to which attention is called by this paper. They may raise objections to existing conditions, and propose remedies, but to the engineer is finally entrusted the work of design and construction.