The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-02 00:00:00

GEORGE '
ROBINS'S ROYAL FILTER
FOR CISTERNS, AND. PORTABLE FILTERS.

The health and the comfort of every family are so im-
mediately concerned with the supply_of pure and whole-
some water to their habitations, that, to use the words of
Dr. Ure, the eminent demist and physician of Claagow,
" it cannot but be an interesting- object to ascertain the
qualities of that which is daily consumed by the inhabit-
ants of large cities ; seeing that a very minute .portion of
unwholesome matter, daily taken, may constitute the prin-
cipal cause of the differences in salubrity which is observ-
able in different places."
The !mason of the year is approaching when the public
will have additional reason to congratulate themselves upon
this important and national invention. So many attempts
have been made to mislead the good folks of the Metropolis,
by pretending to cure the crying evil of, had water, with-
out the least pretension, that we were amongst the
many who remained sceptical as to the pretensions of the
Royal Filter, until we were led to seek ocular demOnstra-
thin by having one fixed up in a large cistern, and we have
now no sort of hesitation in pronouncing it QUITE CIO:a
PLETE, and in giving it OUR UNQUALIFIED PRAISE.
The names of the highest professional talent in the Metro-
polis have given the strongest testimony, that they may be
considered, in the metropolitan city of London as an ab-
solute " God-send," but we will illustrate their opinions
by atubborn hies and proofs as strong as Holy Writ; and
first let us examine the state of the water, as now drank
by the thousand and ten thousand persons who have not
yet availed themselves of this Filter, and of:. readers will
bear in mind, that this evidence is supplied from evidence
given last season in the British House of Parliament.
Sir Henry Halford pronounces the water sent into his
house to be a filthy fluid, with which he is disgusted. Mr.
Thomas, the surgeon, tells us it is saturated with decayed
vegetable matters, and other substances prejudicial to
health. Dr. Hooper is convinced that such matters in the
stomach greatly contribute to the production of that state
of FAULTY DIGESTION and IMPURITY' Of BLOOD, of which
the inhabitants of the Metropolis are constantly complain-
ing. Mr. Keate, the surgeon, avows it to be his opinion,
that it is 80 FILTHY and IMPURE, an. to be unfit for the
breakfast table and for culinary purposes, and that it adds so
much to the other unwholesome constituents of bread, as
to render every meal injurious to the health of thousands.
Dr. Turner asserts, that the water sent into his cisterns
during the hot weather frequently became QUITE PUTRID ;
and Dr. J. R. Hume, of Curzon-street, has no doubt that
the continued use of it WITHOUT FILTERING is capable Of
producing deleterious effects.
Dr. Yeates says, that the Thames water is extremely
bad, foul, dirty, and unwholesome, from the great quan-
tity of FILTHY MATTERS CONTINUALLY POURING INTO IT
PROM NUMEROUS SEWERS. He instances a disease which
C prevailed to a very serious extent, which he had himself
traced to the impurities of the water for domestic use.
Dr. Kerrison makes us acquainted with a fact, the pe-
rusal of which will excite the same disgust in the mind of
the reader,, as we ourselves feel in narrating it. On in-
specting the Thames near the landing at Chelsea Hospital,
Ise saw " the foul and black stream from the Ranelagh
sewer, passing between the Company's steam-engine and
the Dolphin, LOADED WITH NO SMALL PORTION OF UNDI-
VIDED FLOATING FILTH FROM PRIVIES;" from which he
concludes, that " A CONSIDERABLE. QUANTITY OF HUMAN
EXCREMENT, IN A SUBDIVIDED AND UNDECOMPOSED
STATE, ACTUALLY PASSES INTO OUR CISTERNS."

Dr. Somerville, the physician to Chelsea Hospital, state.
the water to be very impure. " The tide," he sar,
" STIRS UP THE MASS OF IMPURITY FRODUCED BY ALL

THAT IS coItRUPTIBLE IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGE'T'ABLE
NVORLD, TOGETHER WITH THE NOXIOUS FILTH OF GAS AND
OTHER MANUFACTORIES, THAT CONSTANTLY FLOW INTO
THE THAMES FROM PATTEILsEA DOWN TO GRAVESEND."
Muffing to the water supplied to his late residence in
Hanover-square, he adds, that " it was not only fre-
quently, but generally, extremely impure, fctid, and
offensive ; that it deposited much mud, and often enough
to tender its colour blackish."

Dr. James Johnson, the author of the " Treatise on In-
digestion," pronounces the water to be disgusting to the
sight, and the effluvia to affect the senses. Until he changed
his residence he was affected with pain after taking his
breakfast, which he attributes to the water. He states the
fact of several young females who had been affected with
bowel complaints from the same cause. It they went out
of town a few days, and drank other water, the complaint
subsided, but often returned on their again drinking this
water. There was a scum on the surface of the water of
an oily nature, and the deposit is immense. When his
cisterns were cleaned out, the smell rendered the house very
uncomfortable. • " We sneer," says the doctor, " at the
delicacy of the Hindoo, who slakes his thirst at the same
tank where his neighbour is sacrificing to Cloacina; but
what shall we say to the DELICATE CITIZENS OF WEST-
DIINSTER, WHO FILL. THEIR TANKS AND STOMACHS WITH
WATER FROM THE THAMES, AT THAT VERY serer INTO
WHICH A lIONDItED THOUSAND CONTAINING
EVERY SPECIES OF FILTH, AND ALL UNUTTERABLE
THINGS, ARE DAILY DISGORGING THEIR HIDEOUS AND
A ROMINABLE CONTENTS. It is absolutely astonishing,
that in these days of refinement, and in a Metropolis
whose inhabitants pride themselves on delicacy and clean-
liness, a practice should obtain, at which posterity will
shudder, if they can credit it. A time must come when
the neople will open their eyes to this scene of corruption,
veiled and concealed as it is by iron tubes and stone pave-
ments. It is probable that part of the insalubrity of the
Metropolis, as compared with the country, may be owing
to this cause."
The last professional gentleman to whose evidence we
shall refer, is Dr. Paris, the author of the popular work
on Dist. He pronounces the water to be impure and
otroisdve, and says that it stinks shortly after it has come
in. LARGE. QUANTITIES OF .MATTER. ARE MECHANICALLY
SUSPENDED IN IT. The Company send in mud with the
water, and then complain that the cisterns are not kept
clean. Ile states, that a family whom he attended last
autumn were all ill, and he believes it arose from drink-
ing this water. "As A PHYSICIAN," he says, " I CAN-
NOT FIND TERMS SUFFICIENTLY EXTRESSIVE OF THE AW-