WATERCRESS FROM STREAMS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 12

WATERCRESS FROM STREAMS

(To the Editor.) % Sn,—Some little time back lefcicnce ■nas made jn your news columns to the questionable piactice of people gathering •waterciess from the Ngahauianga Stream below the Johnsonville septic tank, incidentally suggesting that the conhumption oi the ciebt, might gne use to scvcie .sitkncbS It is art interesting subject, and peinonally I bhould like you to inquiie liom borne leliu.ble souico the tine position. I ask this because some years back I noticed a gathciing mitciticbs fiom a small 'tsatei logged |)jeto of gionnd in the Kelbuin dibtnct Ihe snifacc diainagc fiom a -whole iow of IC-idences iloued o\ci the giound. Being nucleated to know nhcthci such vateiciess if eaten would be detiimental to henllh, I put the case beloio a well known medic il man, since deceased, and his leply was that it was no moio detrimental to health than cabbages or othei vegetables giown on heavily manured giound. In some way, I do not undcibtand, the giowth only abfoibed -what was good tor its development. I have not the knowledge to give the chemical change that takeb place. —I am, tie., INIERESTDD [Inquuics made from the Health Depal tment show that it is unsafe to gather wateicies* for human consumption fiom sti earns or pools in which there is a possibility of contamination fiom di.linage.]