The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-27 00:00:00

THE
CISTERNS, AND PORTABLE FILTERS.
THE Season of the Year is approaching when
the public will have additional reason to congratulate
themselves upon this important and national invention. So
~kany attempts have been naade to mislead the good folks of the
Manetropolis, by pretending to cure the crying evil of bad water,
Without the least pretension, that we were amongst the
may,„ who remained sceptical as to the pretensions of the
rtoyal Filter, until we were led to seek ocular demonstra-
tift by having one fixed up in a cistern, and we have
large ••
"IT no sort of hesitation in pronouncing it QUITE COM-
PLETE, and in giving it OUR. UNQUALIFIED PRAISE.
The names of the highest professional talent in the Metro-
Polls have given the strongest testimony, that they may be
erthidered, in the metropolitan city of London as an ab-
solute " God-send," but we will illustrate their opinions
"S' stubborn facts and proofs as strong as Holy Writ ; and
l'et let us examine the state of the water, as now drank
97 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
liven last season in the BRITISH HOUSE 01? PARLIAMENT.
The following eminent and learned men in their voca-
ti'nis have given evidence, of which the following is ne-
cessarily a short extract, vii.:—
~Sir Henry flalfincl, Dr. Hooper, Mr. Keate, Mr.
ill!Omas
, Dr. Turner, Drs. limns, Yates, Kerrison, Selmer-
", Johnson, and Paris, &c. Etc.--they pronounce the wa-
ter sent into their housea to be a filthy fluid, it is saturated.
with d
-ecayeil vegetable matters, and other substances pre-
judicial to health ; that suchniatters in the stomach greatly
contribute to the production of that state of FAULTY nt.•
°RaTtots and IMPURITY Of BLOOD; that it is HO FUT/VI
and ImPuitn, •as to be unfit for the breakfast table an d
for culinary purposes, and that it adds so much to the oth,:r
unwholesome constituents of bread, as to render every
meal injurious to the health of thousands ; that the water
'lent into the cisterns during the hot weather frequently
became alma PUTRID; and they have no doubt that the
,i-nlinued use of it WITHOUT FILTERING is capable of -pro-
"eing deleterious effects; that the Thames water is ex-
tremely bad, foul, dirty, and unwholesome, front the
great quantity of FILTHY MATTERS CONTINUALLY POUR-
IhQ HITS IT FROM NUMEROUS SEWERS; and Dr. Ker-
-142u makes: we acquainted with a fact, the perusal of
• "Lech will excite the same disgust in the ailed of the
render,
we ourselves feel iu narrating it. On. in-
hiPeeting the Thames near the landing at Chelsea Hospital,
-e wigs the foul and black stream from the Rartelagli
,-'l`▪
.'ver, passing between the Company's steam-engine and
't Dolphin, LOADED WITH NO SMALL PORTION OF UNDI-
11tHIG FLOATING; FILTH FROM PRIVIES;" from which he
sunelisclee, that " A CONSIDERABLE QUANTITY OF HUMAN
UEORIIIIHNT, see A SUBDIVIDED AND UNDECOMPOSED
6VATE, ACTUALLY PASSES INTO OUR CISTERNS."
Dr. Somerville, the physician to Chelsea Hospital, states
Le water to be very impure. " The tide," he says,
"FRS UP THE MASS OF IMPURITY TRODUCED BY ALL
ERA.
IS CORRUPTIBLE IN THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
WORLD, ToorniEß. WITH THE NOXIOUS FILTH OF OAS AND
"1111. MANUFACTORIES, THAT CONSTANTLY SLOW INTO
TIKALIES FROM PATTERSEA DOWN TO GRAVESEND.'
Dr. James Johnsen, the author of the Treatise on In-
aigettion," says.—" We sneer at the delicacy of the
i?radoo, Trim slakes his thirst at the swine tank where
neighbour is sacrificing to Cloacina ; but what shall
we bay ,
tne DELICATE CITIZENS OP WESTMINSTER,
Wit° PILL "THEM TANKS AND STOMACHS WA-
IL". PROM THE THAMES, AT THAT VERY SPOT INTO
^HIM A HUNDRED THOUSAND CLO.IP,X, CONTAINING
2,111. r DTDOIES OF FILTH, AND ALL UNUTTERABLE
IFEINGs, ARE DAILY DISGORGINIA THRALL HIDEOUS AND
•SOIIINABLII CONTENTS.
The last professional gentleman to whale epidemic we
'hall refer, is Dr. Paris, the author of the popular work
MI
Diet. He prenouuccs the water to be impure and
it'eneive, and says that it stinks shortly after it has come
LARGIE
QUANTITIES OF MATTES ARE MECHANICALLY
MP/I/ENDED IN IT. "As A PHYSICIAN," he says, " I CAN-
HoT FIND TERMS SUFFICIENTLY EXPRESSIVE OF THE AW-
FUL EFFECTS IT MAY BE LIKELY TO PRODUCE UPON THE
HEALTH, AND EVEN LIVES, OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE
Ittraisrous " 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 RAVAGES OF SOME EPIDEMIC
mAY BE FAIRLY ANTICIPATED."
SUCH IS THE PICTURE-THE FAPPIIFUL AND FRIGHT-
PP' PICTURE--OF THE CONDITION OF THE WATER OF THE
}IAII4BI AS SUPPLIED BY THE COMPANIES TO THEIR
`▪ tITEUERS. That the inhabitants of the richest, largest,
Ott populous city in the world—the seat of a more opu-
y of nobility and gentry than is to be found in
tcother Metropolis—should, for so long a time, have
cls? contented to have SEEN DAILY RUNNHIG INTO THEIR
C 411", AND TO HAVE USED, FOR ALL DOMESTIC AND
ULINARY 'PURPOSES, A NECESSARY OF LIFE, SO LOADED
WITH ALL SORTS OF IMPURITIES AS TO BE PRONOUNCED,
EV PROFESSIONAL MEN OP THE FIRST EMINENCE, TO ax
OFF NINE 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
"'edited, but upon evidence unanswerable.
Tax mime or THEIR LABOURS IS THE escoatatnN-
nrstost OF A GENERAL SYSTEM OF FILTRATION—A SYS-
FRIA, NOT LIMITED TO THE FIFTT-THREE THOUSAND
FAMILIES DAILY DRINKING THE FILTHY FLUID OF WHICH
WE HAVE BEEN SPEAKING, NUT EXTENDING ITSELF' TO
THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX THOUSAND TENANTS OF
IYiE NEW RIVER AND OTHER COMPANIES, CONSUMING
SAa TWENTY-NINE MILLIONS OF GALLONS DAH-Y SUP-
PLIED TO TUE METROPOLIS. •
Unfortunately, at the moment when the Commissioners
_..ere drawing up their Report, the patent for " The Royal
?filter for Cisterns" had not passed through the tedious or-
-44 of office, OR IT WILL NOT Bit DOUBTED, AFTER READ.
rNa THE FOLLOWING TESTIMONIALS, THAT IT MUST HAVE
FORMED AN IMPORTANT AND HIGHLY SATISFACTORY CON-
CLUSION TO THEIR LABOUos.—The subjoined extract from
tFrospectus, issued by the Proprietor, WILL BE PERUSED
KITH THE LIVELIEST INTEREST BY ALL WHO CONSIDER
%EA/IL/NESS TO BE ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH, AND THE
PURITY OF Triz ELEMENT OF WHICH WE ARE TREAT/NCI,
ro ME NEARLY OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE WITH THE AIR
WE BREATHE :-
" The Royal Filter for Cisterns will be found superior
ko sap filters hitherto invented, inasmuch as it not only
FORESEES THE P3WEIL OF CLARIFYING THE WATER IN A
PILE-EMINENT DEGREE, BUT ALSO TIIAT OF COMPLETE
PuziricATioN, RENDERING slip MOST TURBID, STAGNANT,
AND FCETID WATER, OF A CRTSTA LLINE BRILLIANCY,
ra
nervlste IT OF EVERY NOXIOUS INGREDIENT, AND, IN
FACT, PRODUCING; NATURE'S NECTAR' IN THE HIGHEST
POSSIBLE PERFECTION ; THAT IS TO SAY.; ULNAE. AND
DESTITUTE OE TASTE AND SMELL."
The rapidity of the process may be understood by a
observation, " THAT SO FAST AS THE WATER IS
meerama AT. THE TOP OF TILE CISTERN', SO FAST IT WILL
DIECILA Ea Y. ITSELF FitOM THE BOTTOM."
i 0" But where," the reader will naturally exclaim, "is
thinproof of all this to be found ? must have some-
g more solid and satisfactory than bare assertions. "--
The following atatement must, we think, set the doubts of
the
most
sceptical at rest for ever.
Mr. Hume, the r espectahle and talented chemist of Long
Acre, who lias long -been employed by Government in
pore,
waters, had two bottles sent to hint for
a
AlY3atioll ; THE ONE FULL OF ALL SORTS,,OF ANIMAL
!lib VEGETABLE MATTERS IN A STATE OF DECOMPOSITION,
titb STRONGLY IMPREGNATED WEN' CAS; the other, a
tle which had contained the same foul ingredients, but
41/41)741. purified by the Royal Filter.
trains% Unfiltered bottle he found, he says, forty-six
sow and a half of solid matter, of which thirty grains
ter). 4ted of impurities, and the remaining sixteen grains
wholitile original ingredients peculiar to the water, and
hew, 'NI in it : " fur," he observes, " there is no water,
sake:er pure and wholesome, whether from deep wells,
esiiiiracial springs, or any other source, that is free from
heahli.;;nd other soluble salts, not at all injurious to
.11 the filtered bottle he found only sixteen grains of
lootteji?no, which, OR examination, proved to be the same
;144 "3 peculiar to, and soluble in, the water in its pn-
✓omit:state, and perfectly free from the impurities and
tleni. gent foulness of the water, occasioned principally by
tali Ltd Yegetahle flatters, a slight impregnation by animal
boric some carbureted hydrogen or coal gas, and
toll-Aincar-
- id ga3. Mr. Hume concludes with bearing the
high testimony to the merits of this discovery:
De,l4r a very careful analysis, I cannot hesitate to pro-
inii the method which has been adopted to filter this
v'tneu of water to be most effectual, and hiehly descry-
nut et public encouragement." The same gentleman, at a
till• eittent period, analysed two other bottles, and says,
is ful opinion I had formed of this new process for filtering
11141" Y confirmed." We should add, that the water thus
sai„lt'ki, ALTHOUGH PURPOSRLY STRONGLY ISITREG..
erty: WITH GAS AND OTHER Lear URITIES, BECAME
II ',Lunn, AND DESTITUTE OF TASTE AND SMELL.
44:3 it is clearly proved, THAT OF THE FORTY-SIX
11.4,46 AND A HALE OF SOLID MATTER ORIGINALLY
DP 4, IN TUN ROYAL FILTER, ONLY SIXTEEN GRAINS
Pet, lIITANCES PASSED THROUGH IT; AND- WHICH SIX-
tN 48"41/713 ARE PROVED TO BE PECULIAR TO WATER
CO hit l'untrztvis STATE, AND NOT AT ALL DELETERIOUS
C:11H• However much, therefore, the observation of
iltrt• nHaissioners may apply to all former systems ef a „ •
Q"•) is greatly to be regretted that, before the close