A Science of Impurity

This book is about the application of science to one area of public decision making, the determination of water quality. The first part of the book considers mineral water analysis, discussing methodological and epistemic matters, and social and ideological contexts. The book then takes up the beginnings of concern for the quality of potable water, focusing on the controversies over the quality of London's water during the years around 1828 and then considers the conflict between chemical and microscopical methods of analysis that occurred in connection with the London water controversy of 1849-52. The following chapter deals with the impact of Justus von Liebig's conception of the zymotic process of disease on the theory and practice of water analysis. The book then discusses the role of Edward Frankland, his career as a water scientist and the reactions of other water scientists to Frankland. It then considers the emergence of a new context for water analysis and a new group of water analysts, the public analysts and local medical officers. The closing chapters of the book discuss the transformation of germ theory into the science of bacteriology and the incorporation of ecological and determinative bacteriology into water quality evaluation. The conclusion considers the issue of expertise and raises the question of what constituted progress in water analysis and the larger question of what constitutes satisfactory authority in technological controversy.