The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-30 00:00:00

GEORGE ROBINS'S ROYAL FILTER
FOR CISTERNS, AND PORTABLE FILTERS. I '
THE Season 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 folka of the
Metropolis, by pretending to enre the crying evil of bad water,
without 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-
tion by having one fixed up in a large cistern, and we have
now no sort of hesitation in pronouncing it QUITE COM-
PLETE, and in giving it ourt 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 " Gal-send," hut we will illustrate their opinions
by stubborn facts 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 our readers will
bear in mind, that this evidence is supplied from evidence
given last season in the BRITISH HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT.
The following eminent and learned men in their voca-
tions have given evidence, of which the following is ne-
cessarily a sbol extract, via. :-
Sir Henry Halford, Dr. Hooper, Mr. Keate, Mr.
Thomas, Dr. Turner, Drs. Hume, Yates, Kerrison, Somer-
ville, Johnson, and Paris, &c. &c.-they pronounce the wa-
ter sent into their houses to be a filthy fluid, it is saturated
with decayed vegetable matters, and other substauccsi pre-
judicial to health ; that such matters in the stomach greatly
contribute to the production of that State of FAULTY 'A-
nimator; and nurcarry of BLOOD; that it is so FILTHY
and IMPURE', as to be unfit for the breakfast table 'and
far culinary purposes, arid that it adds SO much to the other
unwholesome constituents of bread, as to render every
meal injurious to the health of thousands ; that the water
sent into the cisterns daring the hot weather frequently
became QUITE roman ; and they have no•doubt that the
continued use of it WITHOUT FILTERING is capable of pro-
ducing deleterious effects ; that the Thames water is ex-
tremely bad, foul, dirty, and unwholesome, from the
great quantity of FILTHY MATTERS CONTINUALLY roust-
IRO INTO IT FROM NUMEROUS SEWERS ; and Dr. Ker-
risen make tis acquainted with a fact, the perusal of
which will excite the same disgust ha the mind of the
reader, .ns we ourselves feel in narrating it. On in-
specting the Thames near the landing at Chelsea Hospital,
he 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
RECREMENT, IN A SUBDIVIDED AND UNDEcomrosuo
STATE, ACTUALLY PASSES INTO OUR CISTERNS."
Dr. Somerville, the physician to Chelsea Hospital, states
he water to be very impure. "The tide," he says,
"STIRS UP TIRE hIASS OF IMPURITY PRODUCED BY ALL

THAT IS CORRUPTIBLE IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE

WORLD, TOGETHER WITH THE NOXIOUS FILTH OF GAS ANL
OTHER MANUFACTORIES, THAT CONSTANTLY PLOW INTO
THE THAMES FROM BATTERSEA DOWN TO GRAVESEND.°
Dr. James Johnson, the author of the " Treatise on In-
digestion," says—" We sneer 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 DELIEATE CITIZENS OF WESTMINSTER,
WHO FILL THEIR TANKS AND SI:OMACIIS WITH WA-
TRH FROM THE THAMES, AT THAT VERY SCOT INTO
WHICH A HUNDRED THOUSAND CLO4C,IO, CONTAINING

EVERY SPECIES OF FILTH, • AND ALL UNUTTERABLE

- ,
THINGS, ARE DAILY DISGORGING THEIR HIDEOUS AND

ABOMINABLE CONTENTS.
The last professional gentleman to whose evidence we
shall refer, is Dr. Paris, the author of the popular work
on Diet. He pronounces the water to be impure and
offensive, and enys that it stinks shortly after it has come
LAKt.E QUANTITIEJ OF MATTER. ARX MECII:NICALIV
SEISPENDIND IN IT. "AS A PHYSICIAN," be says, " I CAN-
NOT FIND TERMS SUFFICIENTLY EXPRESSIVE OE THE .AW-
roc EFFECTS IT MAY BE LIKELY TO PRODUCE UPON THE
HEALTH, AND EVEN LIVES, OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE
METROPOLIS." And in the last edition of his work he
goes still further, and asserts, that if a remedy be not ap-
plied to the evil, " THE EAVAUF.B OF some E-FIDEMIC
MAY BE FAIRLY ANTICIPATED."

SUCH IS THE PICTURE.--THE EArrITEuL AND FRIGHT
PICTUREOF THE CONDITION OF THE WATER OF THE

•THAMES, AS SUPPLIED 1W THE COMPANIES TO THEIR
CUSTOMERS. That the inhabitants of the richest, largest,
snoet populous city in the world—the wet of a more opu-
lent body of nobility and gentry than ie to be found in
any other Metropolis—shonld, for so long a time, have
been contented to have SEEN DAILY RUNNING INTO THEIR
CISTERNS, AND TO HAVE USED, FOR ALI. DOMESTIC AND

CULINARY PURPOSES, A NECESSARY OF LIFE, SO LOADED
WITH ALL SORTS OF IMPURITIES AS TO BE PRONOUNCED,

BY PROFESSIONAL BIEN OF THE FIRST EMINENCE, TO BE
OFFENSIVE TO THE SIGHT, disgusting to the imagination,
and destructive to the health, is a fact that would not
have been credited, and that ought not to have been
ervdited, but upon evidence unanswerable.
THE RESULT OF THEIR LABOURS FS THE RECOMMEN-
DATION OF A GENERAL. SYSTEM OF YILTKATION—r-A SYS'

TEM, NOT LIM/TED TO THE FIFTY-THREE THOUSAND
FAMILIES DAILY DRINKING THE FILTHY FLUID OF WHICH

WE lIAVE BEEN SPEAKING, BUT EXTENDING ITSELF TO

THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX THOUSAND TENANTS OF
THE NEW RIVER AND OTHER °MEANIES, CONSUMING
THE TWENTY-NINE MILLIONS OF GALLONS DAILY SUP-

FLIED TO THE .METROPOLIS.
Unfortunately, at the moment when the Commissioners
were drawing up their Report, the patent for " The Rnyal
Filter for Cisterns" had not pased through t'.e tedious or-
deal of office, OR IT WILL NOT BE lounrEn, AFTER READ-
ING THE. FOLLOWING: TESTIMONIALS, THAT'IT MUST HAVE

FORMED AN PIFORTANT AND HIGHLY SATIBFACTORY CON-
CLATMON TO 7 FIRM LABOUKs.---The subjoined extract from
aFrospeettss, issued by the Proprietor, WILT.. BE YERUSE9
WITH THE LIVELIEST INTEREST BY ALL WHO CONSIDER

CLEANLINESS TO BE ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH, AND THE
PLUME' OF TDB ELEMENT OW WHICH WE ARE TREATING,
TO BE NEARLY Of EQUAL IMPORTANCE term THE AIR.
WE. BREATHE :-
" The Royal rilter for Cisterns will he found superior
to all filta3 hitherto invented, inasinach as it not only
POSSESSES THE rowie. OF cLAstrvitio THE WATER. IN A
TRH-EZI/NENT DEGREE, BUT ALSO THAT OF COMPLETE
FURIFICATION,RENDISRING THE MOST TUIIELD, STAGNANT,
AND ITETID WATER, OF A CRYSTALLINE BRILLIANCY,
DECRITING IT OF EERY NOXIOUS INGREDIENT, AND, IN
FACT, FRODUCINU r NATDRE'S NECTAR.' IN THE lI:WIEST
POSSIBLE I'ERFF::TiON ; THAT IS TO SAY, OLEAN. AND
DESTITUTE On TASTE AND SMELL."
The repidity of the process may be understood by a
single observation, " THAT SO FAY AS THE 'WATER IS
SUPPLIED AT THE TOP OF THE CISTERN, SO EAS'T IT WILL,
DISCHARGE ITSELF FROM THE. BCYTTOM."
" But where," the reader will naturally exclaim, "
Is
the proof of all this to be found ? We must have orome-
•thing more solid and satisfactory than bare assertions."-
The fallowing statement mast, we think, set the doubts of
the most soeptical at rest for ever.
Mr. Hume, the respectable and talented uhemist of Long
Acre, who has tong been employed by Government in
analysing waters, had two bottles sent to him for
analysation; THE ONE FULL OF ALL SORTS OF ANIAIAL
AND 'VEGETABLE MATTE/18 IN A STATE OF DucourosretoN,
Ann WRONGLY IMPREGNATED WITH GAS; the other, a
bottle which had eontained the same foul ingredients, but
had been purified, by. the Royal Filter.
In the, unfiltered bottle he found, he says, forty-six
grains and a half of solid matter, of which thirty grains
consisted of imporities, and the remaining sixteen grains
were the original ingredients peculiar to the water, and
dissolved in it : ".for," he observes, " there is no water,
however pure and wholesome, whether from deep wells,
superficial springs, or any other source, that is free from
saline and other soluble salts, not at all injurious to
health."
In the filtered bottle he found only sixteen grains of
substances, which, on examination, proved to be the same
materials peculiar to, and solnUle ice, the water in its pri-
mitive state, and perfectly free front the imptuitics and
contingent foulness of the water, oceasioned-principally by
decayed vegetable matters, a slight impregnation by animal
substances, some carbureted hydrogen or coal gas, 'and car-
bonic acid gas. Mr. Hume concludes with bearing the
following high testimony to the merits of this discovery:
" After a very careful analysis,
I cannot hesitate to pro-
. flounce the method which has beenadopted to filter this
, specimen of water to be most effectual, and highlydeuce-
I ing of public encouragement." The tame gentleman, at a