The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-24 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 24, 1858:

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

TATTERSALL'S. -MONDAY.

Beyond settling the York accounts little business was
transacted ; indeed so limited was speculation on future
events that it was difficult to determine the true tone of the
market. Toxophilite was not quite so firm for The St.
Leger as he was during the latter part of the York meeting,
whilst a disposition was evinced to back both Fitz Roland
and The Hadji. 900 to 100 about The Promised Land, and
20 to 1, to a small amount only, about Marionnette, were the
only Derby investments that came under our notice.
SURREY AND MIDDLESEX STAKES (EGHAM).
2 to 1 agst. Mr. Oldacre's Relapse—offered.
ST. LEGIER.

3 to 1 agst. Lord Derby's Toxophilito—taken.
sto 1 Sir J. Hawley's Fitz Roland—taken aud offered.
6to 1 Mr. Dawson's The Hadji.
12 to 1 Mr. J. Merry's Sunbeam—offered.
1,000 to 30 Mr. J. Scott's Longrange—taken.
1,000 to 15 Mr. J. Scott's Incledon—taken.

THE NAVY.

The Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, the First Lord of
the Admiralty, accompanied by Capt. Milne, Lord Lovaine,
and the Right Hon. H. T. L. Corry, arrived at Queens-
town and Cork on Saturday morning in her Majesty's ship
Diadem, and were to reech Holyhead yesterday. From
Holyhead the Lords proceed to Pembroke on their tour of
inspection.
The Atlas, 91, screw line-of•battle steamer, one of the
large screw steamers recently ordered to be built at Chatham
dockyard, is already in frame, a large body of shipwrights
being employed on her in order that she may be completed
with all despatch.
The Charybdis, 21, screw corvette, being built at Chatham,
is nearly completed, and will shortly be ready for launching.
She is to be fitted with engines of 400 horse power.
A large number of live shell were found on board the Nep-
tuue,l2o, in No. 3 dock, Portsmouth, on Saturday last.
They have been taken cut and conveyed to the Ordnance
department.
The Orion. 91, screw, Captain Edwin C. T. D'Eyncourt,
bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Home Fre-
mantle, K.C.8.; the Caesar, 91, Captain Charles Frederick;
the Brunswick, 80, Capttin Erasmus Ommanney ; the Re-
nown, 91, Capt. Arthur Forbes; and the Racoon, 21, Capt.
James A. Paynter, all screw ships, sailed this day from
Spithead for a cruise in the Channel.
A Court-martial assembled on board the Victory yester-
day morning, in Portsmouth harbour, to try Samuel Evans,
able seaman of her Majesty's ship Renown, for desertion.
Captain Arthur Forbes, of the Renown, prosecuted. The
Court was composed of Rear-Admiral Sir. Charles Home
Fremantle, president; Rear-Admiral Hen. G. Grey, Cap-
tains Eyres, Seymour, Harris, Frederick, Hewlett, Willcox,
Gordon, Paynter, Tarletoa, and D'Eyncourt, and Mr. W. J.
Hellyer, Deputy Judge-Advocate. The Court found the
charge fully proved, and sentenced the prisoner to receive
50 lashes and be imprieoned six months in Winchester gaol.
Commodore Charles Eden, as Coutruller-General cf the
Coastguard, is on an official cruise of inspection on the
coast of Scotland.
The following appointments were made yesterday at the
Admiralty :
Captain H. D. Rogers, C. 8., to the Cumberland, as Flag
Captain to Rear-Admiral Sir Stephen Lushington, K.C.8.,
Commander-in-Chief on the south-east coast of America;
Lieutenant T. B. Collinson to the Spy, vice Lnckraft, super-
seded at his own request.

DEATH IN THE PUMP.

An important investigation instituted by the medical
officers of health in the metropolis into the quality of the
water supplied from the London pumps has just closed, and
fearful and shocking are the disclosures that have resulted
therefrom, the water in most instances having been proved
to be strongly impregnated with the most abominable mat-
ters, and producing gases most dangerous to the health of
the unfortunate ignorant consumers. An agitation on the
subject first arose out of some proceedings adopted in the
parish of Marylebone, where the medical officer of health,
Dr. Thomson, after a searching analytical examination of
the waters btained from certain pumps in the district,
ordered that the pumps should be closed, the water being,
in his opinion, such as to seriously endanger the public
health. The water Dr. Thomson found strongly mixed with
the surface drainage of the streets and the percolations from
the sewers, as likewise being strongly impregnated with gas
which had escaped from the gas-pipes beneath the street.
The pumps consequently were ordered to be closed ; the last
puma thus closed, and eventually removed, the well beneath
being filled up, stood at the corner of Park-street, Oxford-
street. Dr. Thomson reported as regarded this pump—
after speaking of the brickworkof the well being in a very
.dilapidate'd and ruinous state—" The bricks forming the
walls were saturated with water nearly to- the mouth of the
well, although the depth of water in the bottom of this well
was only 2A feet. This fact Shows that the well is simply a
pit sunk in a porous soil, and' hat the sUrface water of the
street, saturated with the manure of the road, permeates the
sides of the well ; this in truth is the source of that water sup-
ply. The water I have analysed, and find it to be more impure
than when f examined it in 1856, as exhibited in the following
table:-1856, total impurity, degrees or grains per gallon
42.64, organic impurity 4.96: 1858, total imptirity, de-
grees or grains per gallon 49.60, organic impurity 5.52. I
find it to contain nitric acid and ammonia, which are uu-.
equivocal tests of the presence of organic or animal matter.
The amount of ammonia I find to be 109 grains per gallon,
which is equivalent to 307 grains of carbonate of ammonia.
I may add that the smell:of gas was very strong in the earth
surrounding the well, and that the galley drain was stopped
and the fluid contents of the drain oozed into the well. I
should be negligent iu the discharge of my duty if I did not
strongly urge the extreme danger of such water bein_ used
by. the public." Notwithstanding all this, and a confirma-
tory report from the district surveyor, a strong phalanx of
opposition was raised by the inhabitants, all of whom in-
sisted on still drinking the water, they describing it as"pel-
lucid
and beautiful." However, their objections were set
aside, and the pump was removed. Such evidence as this,
emanating from Dr. Thomson, led to the inquiry by the
medical officers generally, and in their report, which con-
tains the opinions of some 30 of the most talented, shrewd,
and scientific men of the day, pump-water as at present
supplied in the metropolis is condemned as being unhealthy
and exceedingly dangerous for drinking purposes.
Dr. Druitt, medical officer of health for the parish of
St. George, Hanover-square, in speaking of the waterfrom
the parish street-pump, says :—" The water was com-
plained of for being slightly turbid. I took some home for
examination. It smelled strongly of sewage, so strongly that
some persons said that it must be the smell of coal-gas, but
on examining the deposit from the water it was found to
contain yellow flocentent organic matter, which I believe to
have been fceces." Dr. Druitt then, after speaking of the
closing of several pumps in his district, observes that a heavy
storm might suddenly flood such wells with sewage " and
thus we might have diarrhoea and cholera, and be consoled
by a scientific inquiry as to how the mischief was done."
Then follows the opinion of Dr. Lankester, medical
officer for St: James's, in which parish stands the notorious
" cholera-pump"—the Broad-street pump, the water from
which caused a fearful and fatal devastation from cholera
amongst its consumers during the outbreak of that dire dis-
ease in 1854. Dr. Lankester remarks in his observations—
" The organic matter found in the surface wells of London
are of precisely the same nature as those found in rivers
which are the receptacle of house sewage. The most observ-
able difference arises from the fact that the water, passing
into the wells, undergoes a process of filtration, so that the
animal matters are more perfectly dissolved and decom-
posed than they are generally in the river waters. Hence
the surface well waters are clearer, whilst the carbonic acid
of the decomposed matter make ern sparkling, and the
nitrates they contain give them a pleasant coolness to the
taste. Nothing could be better adapted to lure their victims
to destruction than the external qualities of these waters;
hence the worst of them are the most popular for drinking
purposes. The most impure water in this parish is that of
the Broad-street pump, and it is altogether the most popular.
The large amount of mortality from cholera in this parish in
1854, arose from the popularity of that water, persons send-
ing from a distance to obtain it and dying of cholera wherever
it was drunk." Mr. John Simon, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., medical
officer of the General Board of Health, in a communication
addressed to Dr. Lankester, alluded to the outbreak of cho-
lera through the water used from the Broad-street pump, as
also to the more recent outbreak from the same cause—im-
pure pump water—at West Ham. Mr. Simon then says,
—" Pumps supplying such waters can never in London be
otherwise than dangerous sources of supply. The porous
soil from which they suck is that into which our cesspools
and leaky drains discharge a great part of their fluids, some-
times even a solid part of their contents, and in which, till
very recently, all our interments have taken place. It is a
soil which consequently abounds with putrid and putrefi-
able matter." Dr. Letheby, medical officer of health for
the City, in confirming such observations, remarks, " The
man who habitually makes use of London pump water is
living in perpetual danger of disease." The other nume-
rous opinions are to the same effect, and Dr. Barnes, of
Shoreditch district, in condemning the water supplied from
pumps, very reasonably adds, "In my district, I certainly
should have adopted the course you have, were it not for the
fact that a very considerable number of poor people can get
no other water; and as water of some sort is a prime neces-
sary of life, I have been compelled to let things remain."
He then &eye, " I look forward to the time when the proper
water supply will justify me in restricting the use of the sur-
face welt pumps to watering the roads." Mr. C. J. F.
Lord, medical officer of Hampstead, after instancing the
unhealthy quality of pump water in populous places, goes
still furtber, Mr. Lord remarking, "Much illness has arisen
at Brighton and Worthing, also at Sandgatc, from drainage
percolating into the wells." Dr. Griffith, of Clerken well dis-
trict, sums up, after observing that the idea of drinking the
excretions of other human beings is sufficiently repulsive to
counterbalance the attractive physical qualities of the
pump water—" Moreover, the shallow well water receives
the drainage water of the Highgate Cemetery, of nume-
rous burial-grounds, and of the numerous cesspools in this
district. The clay rises high at Highgate-hill, so that the
rain water which percolates the soil on the London side of
the cemetery, flows towards the metropolis. This source of
contamination might have been prevented by forming the
cemetery on the northern side of Highgate-hill, instead of
on the southern side, where it at present exists." Such are
the results of the important investigation that has been in-
stituted in this matter; first, with the laudable idea of warn-
ing the public against such a fearful and disgusting source
of disease; and, secondly, with the object of remedying the
evil. This can, it would seem, be easily attained by the en-
tire removal of all the pumps and the filling up of the wells,
while at the same time stand pipes, connected with the
water companies' mains, can be erected in their stead to
supply the poorer classes with a wholesome supply of water,
and the tired thirsty wayfarer with a pure and uncontami-
nated draught.

NEW BRANCH OF THE CALEDONIAN
RAILWAY TO GRANTON.

As the works on the new branch line from the Caledonian
Railway to Grantou have now made very considerable pro-
gress, a few facts in connexion with the objects for which it
was projected and the course it will describe may not be un-
interesting.
Some ten or elevea years ago an application was made to
parliament for powers to construct a line almost identical
with the one now making, but these powers expired four or
five years subsequently without being acted upon, with the
exception of the cutting of the Haymarket Branch, which
forms a connexion between the Caledonian and the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow Railways, and by which access
might be gained for the traffic on the former rail-
way to the Waverley-bridge Station. This line has been
completed some years, and although pefectly workable, has
scarcely, through disputes between the companies as to
station accommodation, been made use of up to the present
time. The Haymarket branch diverges from the Edinburgh
and Glasgow line a little to the west of the Haymarket sta-
tion, and joins the Caledonian line about half a mile on this
side of Slateford. The line now in progress is so far a con-
tinuation of the Haymarket branch that it commences at a
point on that branch near the Haymarket station (formerly
the only Edinburgh station on the Glasgow line), and pro-
ceeding crosses the Edinburgh and Glasgowline by a viaduct,
the highroad by a bridge between Coltbridge and Donald-
son's Hospital, and strikes off to the west of Craigleith
Quarry and Blackball. At this point the original plan has
been slightly modified. As formerly contemplated, the
branch here took a more easterly direction than it now does,
its course at present running from near Craigleith to the
western breakwater of Granton Harbour. The Duke of
Buccleuch—who, it is perhaps necessary to mention, is per-
sonally interested iu the line—has already commenced pre-
parations on a large scale, by erecting cranes, &c., on the
breakwater,with a view to facilitate the shipment of minerals,
gas coal, ironstone, &c., for exportation, and the convey-
ance of imports, which for the most part will consist of flax
and hemp from the Baltic. The exports will be mostly from
Lanark and Ayrshire. The construction of the line is
adapted for goods traffic; but should the directors commence
the conveyance of passengers, this would not necessitate any
important alterations.
The works, now being pushed on by a staff of nearly two
hundred labourers, extend to a good distance beyond
Craigleith, though commenced only so recently as the
17th of May. The excavations in Lord Murray's lands of
Murrayfield are the deepest on the line—namely, about 35
feet; the embankments on the lands of Blinkbonny (the
property of Trinity Hospital) are being yor-_
warded ; and navvies are likewise busy upon ethe grounds of
enrgetics!! t
Mr. Ramsay, of Barnton. The stone bridge whi lospane
the Glasgow highroad is rapidly advancing,
as. is
t als
tth
bridge across the Water of Leith. The latter will ofconsist
three arches, sixty feet above the stream. These are both
to be skew bridges. It was
necessary a double the intention of the directors
to lay down a single line of rails only,. but operations are
on a scale sufficient to accommodate it
line. The distance of thmeiles line
but from
by forming the Hg
another
;
bbrraannceh t
—which understand
rstand is in Contemplation—run ••
ning almost directly eastward from the Granton Junct'on to
the Caledonian line near Dairy, this distance will be reduced
by a mile and a half, Raving
if passenger traffic from Edinburgh should be
Dairy
the total distance only al
4%'vould render unnecessary the disagreeableness
established,nsilesTbi
of shunting trains back on to the Haytnarket Junction.
The cuttings present no feature of extraordinary difficulty,
and it is expected, should the work meet with nq unfot esren
interruption, that the line will be fully compleied by Christ-
and will skirt the beautiful Corstorphine Hill on
mils twelve mooths. It will run through a fine undulatinc,
country, and
forming, if passenger traffic should be undertaken,
a most pleasant, although certainly somewhat circuitous
route to Granton.
As regards the capital, the Parliamentary estimate of the
cost of the line was £60,000, but the managers have power
to raise, in addition to this, the sum of £:24,000. The Duke
of Bucelench, we learn, contributes half the amount of
ii
capital.—Scotsman.

CRYSTAL PALA CIL— ONE eHILLING
DAY.—Yes-
terday the admissions on
season ticket,, oi7 t3tRI visitors, 0;230.
Partici-it were 8,6.39; ditto by