The sun., 1880-08-15
The London Water Question.

supplied to tho greater part of London is de-
testablc, although no visitor can fail to notice
the almost exclusive use OF Apullinaris and
other bottled products of foreign springs in
the houses Of the rich How it happens that
well-to-do LondoEers are practically COM
pclled to incur considerable outlay for inn
ported drinking water, is explained by come
facts published in the British Quarterly
1t appears that the immense metropolis,
which DE QUINCEY aptly termed tho "na-
tion " of London, is nominally supplied with
water by eight private corporations, five
carrying on their operations to the north OF
the Thames and three on the south bank OF
that river. or these companies, the Kent
Water Works alone, which supply Green
wich and Woolwich and district extending
along the river from Camberwell to Dart
ford, have for nearly quarter OF century
furnished water which Is fit to drink. Prior
to 1857 their stores were drawn from the
River Ravensbourne at Deptford, where a
good deal Of pollution took place from sew
age; but since the date named their supplies
have been taken from deep wells sunk in tho
chalk formation. That this is the only safe
method OF filling reservoirs intended for
drinking purposes, since the universal
adoption OF the modern water-closet sys-
TEN. and consequent detilement OF rivers
and their feeders, seems to be conclusively
attested by the experience Of the seven
other corporations. or these, one known as
the New River" Company would have had
under its control water Of unexceptionabls
quality had 1t continued to rely on its
original sources, which were copious springs
and wells in relatively unfrequented dis
trict. In order to increase the quantity,
however, this company drew on the River
Lea, and has filtering reservoirs occupying
more than eleven acres along its banks. But
the River Lea, we are told, is befouled at its
very source, near Luton, a town of 10000
inhabitants, with $500 water closets dis
charging their contents into the stream.
Much the same may be said OF dozen other
towns situated on the same river above the
reservoirs. This tainted stuff is consumed
by all the Londoners living in a quarter
which may be roughly described as lying
between the Tower and Charipg Cross. pro-
vided, Of cour Sc, the denzens cannot afford
to buy Apollinaris. The East London Com
pany, whose territory adjoins the New River
district on the east, also derives its water
from the River Lea. Offensive and danger
Gus as the water Of this stream must be- it
has been pronounced, after a chemical and
microscopical investigation, less polluted
than that Of the Thames above Hampton
Court. Now, OF the other five corporations,
every one draws its supplies from the
! Thames not far above the point just men
toned. In word, since the water courses
pf ba lin try boy haa I'm nod
into a common sewer by the water-closet
system, almost all the water offered to
Londoners is filthy fluid. nauseous to more
senses than one, and liable at any moment
to transmit the specific virus of some zymotic
disease, and become deadly poison.
1t used to be asserted by the partisans Of
the water companies that large running
river will, SO to speak, digest large guam
tity Of sewage on its course; that a piece OF
ordure, for instance, dropped into the
Thames near its source, would be oxidized,
chemically decomposed, and absorbed by
growing plants and insects before it reaches
Reading. But 1t has now been proved by
Sir B. BRoDIE and DR.. FARMLAND, after a
series OF elaborate experiments, that there
Is no river in the United Kingdom long
enough to effect the destruction Of sewage
by oxidation. 1t is also asserted by the
same authorities that no process OF tiltra-
tion can do more than remove the grosser
particles suspended in the water, and that
no filter yet invented would arrest the
eggs Of those animalcules to which cer-
tain kinds OF affections should be at
tributed. or course, too, denominations
in solution are totally unaffected by
filtration. 1t is we'll known that diarrh9a
becomes fatal in London in those districts
supplied with Thames water when the tenn
perature Of that river rises much above
sixty degrees. The statistics Of cholera in
England during the last four vstations,
and the record OF the Milbank Prison, attest
beyond dispute the relation OF the water
used in London to the rate OF mortality.
Formerly epidemics OF typhoid fever were
Of frequent occurrence in the Milbank
Prison, no less than 500 out OF $50 convicts
being sick at one time; whereas this malady
has actually become extinct there since
1854, when the supplies from the Thames
were discontinued, and water was pumped
from an artesian we'll.
Apart from the inherent filthiness OF
the London water, the mode OF delivery
| Is calculated to agRravate the evil. In
stead OF constant supply OF water at
a high pressure, like that furnished by our
Croton works, the London water is delivered
under all intermittent system once in every
| twonty-four hours. Each householder col
lects 1t into cistern, too often connected by
an overflow pipe with the drains; and here
even pure water, by absorbing gases, would
soon become contaminated, while the
Thames fluid becomes horrible, depositing q
foul mud, and rapidly putrefying. Under
these circumstances, we are not surprised
at the small success achieved in London by
temperance societies, which expect their dis.
ciplcs, on hot July day, to swallow this
tepid and loathsomo stuff instead Of a froth-
ing tankard of beer in the public house.
Every attempt to solve the London water
question had thus far failed because the
remedies essayed were not sufficiently radi
cal One proposed palliative was an act o
Parliament forbidding the towns along the
Thames to befoul the river with their sew,
age, under penalty of $500 day. But