The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-07 00:00:00

Constant Water Supply.

It is gratifying to find that, upon the principle
" better late than never," the parishes are at last
taking up the matter in earnest. Years past it must
have been evident to them (it has been to every
person who thinks at all upon the subject) that in
the water supply and means of storage in London
there are active causes of disease, which have over
and over again been proved to be full of peril. It
is unnecessary to repeat the oft-told instances, the
facts upon a large scale, which Mr. Simon, Dr.
Adana, and others have placed on record. That
there is a remedy for this evil is sufficiently clear ;
and it is quite time for the people'of this country to
reconsider this question of expense versus health,
versus humanity, versus our duty to our neighbour.
A report upon this same subject, by Mr. Rendle,
formerly the health officer of Saint George's,
Southwark, has been issued by the vestry of that
parish. It appears to us to merit the most
serious consideration of the authorities. ,The
statements in this report, and the points which
will occur independently to every mind, compel
us to ask why the water supply in such a place as
London has been suffered to remain so long in this
scandalous state. In former days, before the sewage
of the towns was poured into the river, the water,
no doubt, appeared far worse than it now does.
But it must not be forgotten that it then brought
down little else than earthy matter; the streams
had not then been generally polluted with cesspool
drainage. Now the apparently clean water may,
and does, bring with it the minute germs of cholera
and like diseases to those drinkers lower down the
stream who happen to have their supply from it.
For this reason careful people are now boiling the
water before they drink it, and it is no doubt very
necessary to do so. A very little leaven, so small
even as not to be at present amenable to microsco-
pical or chemical research, may leaven the whole in
a most dangerous manner. Let us, then, have pure
water, and plenty of it. The impurities of food are,
as a rule, far less dangerous than the impurities of
water ; matters in solution pass so rapidly into the
system. As to storage, Mr. Rendle says :—" Inspec-
tions made within the last year have shown that in
numbers of cases (he might have said numberless
cases) the poor have no water receptacles properly
so called, at all. In others they have, as makeshifts,
tubs, jars, barrels-;:wholly unsuited for. the purpcise
—these, moreover, kept in overcrowded and un-
cleanly living-rooms, or in extremely filthy yards.
In others there are receptacles in bad repair, or
more or less rotten and tainted. In most cases these
receptacles are without covers, notwithstanding they
are almost necessarily placed in situations full of
offensive emanations, or where they must in various
ways receive dust, smoke, and the like." We may
as well quote the passage throughout :—" To show
the almost impossibility of keeping water reasonably
pure in the receptacles in use, let it again be noted,
and never forgotten, what kind of receptacles are
generally in use among the poor; chat they are
usually placed of necessity near to closets, privies,
dustheaps, untrapped sinks, open drains, and in
filthy, sloppy yards—that from these and other
causes it is impossible to keep water other than in a
tainted atmosphere. The full force and vital con-
sequence of this argument will be understood by
calling to mind how largely water absorbs deleterious
and other gases. One thousand gallons of water
are known to dissolve, at the common temperature,
46 gallons of oxygen ; 25 of nitrogen ; 2,500 cf
sulphuretted hydrogen, a sewer and privy gas pro-
ductive of fever; 1,000 of carbonic acid; and
500,000 of ammonia, a product of animal decom-
position, as in urinals. The result of all this is,
among the poor especially, that the supply is very
impure indeed ; and in quantity it does not perhaps
exceed, on the average, five gallons per individual
among this class of people. This, whether a little
more or less, is altogether inadequate; consequently,
filthy houses and filthy habits ; and the result of
these, disease, personal degradation, and neglect.—
The Lancet.