The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-29 00:00:00

at4l+ 4 44.
*, 44a,

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 29, 1866,

We are very glad to find that the very important
question of our Metropolitan Water Supply is likely
to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner. A
royal commission has been appointed, consisting of
the Duke of RICHMOND, Sir JOHN TIIWAITES,
Colonel lIARNEss, R.C., Alderman PHILLIPS, and
Messrs. HARRISON and PRESTWICK, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining what supply of unpolluted
and wholesome water can be obtained by collecting
and storing water in the high grounds of England
and Wales either by the aid of natural lochs or by arti-
ficial reservoirs at a sufficient elevation for the supply
of the large towns. They are further to report
which of such sources are best suited for the
supply of London and its suburbs, and also
how the supply from the remaining 'sources may
be most beneficially distributed among the principal
towns. This is a step in the right direction, for it
has long become evident that we must seek some
purer and more distant source of:supply than any
we at present possess, if we wish to preserve the
public health, and ward off the attacks of dangerous
epidemics. England has no lack of water, but what
withour manufactures and our sewers we are doing
our best to poison it. It will be some time before
a more rational system of drainage is applied
in extenso, and even when that very desirable re-
form is carried out, there will remain all the manu-
factures which require water, and which are not cal-
culated to improve the salubrity, or the attractions
of a stream. Not very long ago an adventurous
experimenter extracted a bottle of pure paraffine
from the waters of one of our English rivers,
and countless are the details brought forward con-
firming the unpleasant impressions which are
generally entertained on this subject. The inti-
mate connection between epidemic disease and
impurity of water has been abundantly proved,
more particularly with regard to that terrible
visitor whom we have much reason to dread,
though there is no doubt that typhus fever and
many other fatal maladies owe their dangerous
prevalence more or less directly to this cause. The
remarkable coincidence of the limited area of the
cholera's ravages, with the supply derived from
any particular company this year, has pointed the
moral most forcibly, so as to impress the most
sceptical and least observant, and we are glad to
find it has not been lost on the authorities. Since
the quality of the water supplied to a district is
a matter entirely beyond the control of the inhabit-
ants of a particular district, it is plainly the duty
of the Legislature to take care that the water sup-
plied to them shall be sufficient in quantity, and
free, at least, from organic impurities. On both
these heads there have been serious shortcomings.
The poorer and more populous
districts especially
suffer severely from the insufficient and in-
termittent supply, and while this subject
is under discussion it would be 'well to con-
sider whether it is not desirable to make it compul-
sory on landlords to construct in every house a
proper place for storing water, sufficient at least for
one day's consumption, by the ordinary number of
inhabitants. In small, over-crowded houses, where
the different families have but twenty minutes or
half an hour daily in -which to catch their day's
supply for washing, cooking, and drinking, in tubs,
buckets, or other open vessels, there is not much
likelihood that enough will be secured for health,
comfort, and decency ; or that, if tolerably
pure when it leaves the reservoir, it wi

keep fresh for the twenty-four hours ensuing.
The tendency of stagnant water to attract bad
smells, &c., is so well known that it is a common
plan to put a pail or tub of water in a newly-
painted room to take off the smell, yet no one
seems to apply this principle to the contrivances of
the lodgers in our crowded and dirty courts.

Dr. LETHEBY has just published some interesting
tables respecting our metropolitan water supply.
The facts which he gives are both valuable in them-

selves and interesting from a scientific point of view,
but we are not bound to accept the conclusions

which he draws from them. He seems doubtful

whether any more improvements can be made,
and evidently thinks that the condition of the

water supply has very little to do with
the cholera. The health officers of the eastern dis-
tricts where the epidemic was most severe do not,
he says, accord in their opinions with the popular
hypothesis, but he does not disclaim the necessity of
calm and deliberate investigation. At any rate
there has been a marked improvement in the quan-
tity and quality of the water supplied o the metro-
polis in the years 1851 and 1866, and this has pro-
bably a great deal to do with the diminished action
of the cholera, The moot marked improvement,