The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-10 00:00:00

THE SUPPLY OF WATER TO TFIE METROPOLIS.

"Aide toi et le ciel ((lidera," such was the advice of
Jupiter to the clown whose cart wheel was sunk so
deeply in a rut that his horse was unable to extricate
it. The fellow sat down and cried aloud for help.
" Help you l" exclaimed the god, " Lay your shoulder
to the wheel, you lazy hound, and endeavour to help
yourself, and then you may expect aid from me."
This fable may be well applied to the inhabitants
of the metropolis, who are continually crying for
fresh and pure water, yet as a body make no effort
to obtain it, but quietly sit down, treating the matter
as an absolute impossibility; and instead of sedulously
applying themselves to obtain the requisition, leave
the task to a few who, as it were, single-handed, are
left to combat with the diffieulti,o and overcome
them if they can.
It certainly is a matter of 'great surprise how a
people vauntingly professing to be cleanly, should so
long, with a full knowledge of the fact, daily before
their eyes, of the discharge into their daily drink of
the sewerage of this vast population, continue to be
content with such polluted water. It might have
been expected that this well-known and astounding
fact would have created such a hurricane of indigna •
tion as would long since have swept before it the
present system of corruption.
But such is the apathy of the case that, with the
exception of a few meetings called together at the
earnest solicitation of some worthy philanthropist, no
notice appears to be taken, and the mass are allowed
to go on drinking and dying, heedless of the cause
and effect.
This extraordinary apathy can only ba accounted
for by the remedy for the evils not being generally
known.
Let the tocsin bell sound and let the people flock
together and demand redress. Let the officials in every
parish aid in this cause, and let all of us put our
shoulders to the wheel, and we shall soon have a be-
neficial result.
The supply of pure water is so essential to our very
existence, that we feel it an imperative duty to bring
the subject prominently before the public, in order
that those who have it in their power to render assist-
ance, may rightly understand the matter, and give that
assistance for the benefit of themselves and those who
have not the power to interfere. Yet all have in some
way a direct or indirect power to assist—some can
assist with their purse; others by their intellectual
acquirements ; and all by joining in representing to
the Government the grievances arising from the sup-
ply of water "wholly unfitted for human consumption."
'We have now before us the various reports of
commissioners, committees, and boards of health—the
Lancet and many other sources of authentic informa-
tion ; all of which have been printed and published for
our general use and benefit. From these we shall
make such selections as may appear necessary to give
a fair statement of the present position of the water
supply on the south or Surrey side of the Thames.
We may mention that we make choice of that large
district, because the evils are more grievous, and
because by far the greater part of the population there
are comparatively of the poorer class of the coinmu-
nity, who require to be looked after in a sanitary
point of view as much for our good as their own.
For filth engenders disease and pollution, and but let
an epidemic tendency arise, and, as the flash of
lightning, the contaminating influence will rapidly
spread, rushing as a whirlwind from the dwellings of
the poor to the mansion of the rich, striking all alike
by its pestilential effect.
Water in its elementary state is a chemical combi-
nation of two gases, " oxygen and hydrogen," in
certain proportions.
These gasses are alone necessary to the constitution
of water. In this simple state it is only to be met
with in the very purest of distilled water and in
some ice. The Wonham Lake ice has been esteemed
the purest of any hitherto introduced to our
notice. In this state of purity, on account of its
solvent properties, it is not found here, but is always
in combination with other matters, and these consti-
tute the nature and quality of the water. It constantly

pari&pates in the properties of the manifold sources
whence it is derived or through which we obtain it.
The additional matters with which it comes in contact
and impregnated are arranged under the two heads,
" organic and inorganic." The inorganic additions
are for the most part merely suspended in water,
and do not impart any deleterious proper-
ties, but there are, however, inorganic
substances contained in water in a state of solution,
and to the presence of these are indebted the sensible
properties of water. The organic matters are those
which impart the deleterious impurities to water, and
are either derived from dead or living substances of a
vegetable or animal nature.
Everyone who has been in a steam or other boat
on the Thames has had an opportunity of seeing the
inorganic matter, or suspended clay or sand floating
past him, but the organic or deleterious matters are
hidden from his view, and to these shall we direct our
particular attention, because they are our most insi-
dious and destructive enemies.
During the influenza and cholera epidemic, when
the mortality occasioned by the effect of polluted
water was excessive, the aid of the General Board of
Health was required, in order to avert or mitigate the
ravages of those diseases, and their attention was par-
ticularly directed to the inferior quality, and defi-
cient quantity, of the water supplied to the metro-
polis. They reported that the supply of the Surrey
district of the metropolis was " wholly unfit for
use, and was highly dangerous to the health of the
persons who drink it." This district is supplied by
the following companies from the Thames water,
namely--
TIIE SOUTHWARK AND VAUXHALL—and THE LAM-
BETH. Tne first of these two companies takes the
supply near the Red House, BATTERSEA, and the latter
from a point AT LAMBETH.
We will now consider the quality of the water taken
at BATTERSEA and at Lambeth, as appears by the evi-
dence given on various occasions.
It is reported on oath that the supply of these two
companies is " the worst water in London."
The water as now delivered very generally exhi-
bits " a thick and opaque appearance, and although
professing to be filtered, differs but little from Thames
water itself as produced direct from the river." The
great source of pollution to which the Thames water
is subject is the sewage, which consists of every con-
ceivable filth and abomination—the waste of the kit-
chen, the contents of the watercloset, the refuse of
the slaughterhouse, knacker's yard, hospital, gas
works, and other impure manufactures of every de-
scription,—these and many other matters of an offen-
sive, disgusting, and dangerous character, are height
ened by the decomposition which they undergo.in the
sewers, previous to the discharge into the river.
The filtering system at present adopted only sepa-
rates the larger particles of earthy and organic mat-
ters, allowing a free passage of the smaller, includ-
ing all the lesser animalcules, but all the impurities of
the water in a state of solution of course readily pass
through the filtering medium.
The medical writer of the Laud, in speaking of
the disease occasioned by the impurities contained in
water, and referring to Thames water, says, that if
we allow two quarts of Thames water as the average
daily quantity of water, in some form or other, con-
sumed by each person, we must, from positive evi-
dence, admit that there is then introduced into his or her
system every day ten, twelve, or more grains of some
earthy or alkaline salt. When it is remembered that
five grains of many earthy or alkaline salts constitute
a medicinal dose, the conclusion is indisputable that
such water, especially with other organic impurities,
must produce medicinal action, and, therefore, affect
the health.

It would occupy all our columns were we to give a
minute description of each particle of impurity found
in the Thames water, and, therefore, shall present to
our readers two engravings, which we have selected
from the Lancet of February last, in order that the
public may have a clear idea of the impurities.