Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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Analysis, Chemical and Microscopical, of the various Waters used in Shoreditch.
SOURCE. | Date. | Total Impurity in degrees, or Total Residue in grains per gallons. | Organic matter. | Nature of living and dead vegetable and animal matter, ascertained by microscope. | Mechanical Impurity | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A. Surface-Gravel or Land-drainage Wells | 1. Pump opposite Shoreditch Church | 9th June 1856 | 92.50 | 9.00 | A few sporules and threads of fungus; many ova-cases, a bit or two of vegetable tissue, and many oxytrichæ | Trifling. |
2. Pump in Plum ber Street | 10th June 1856 | 117.50 | 9.50 nitrates | Water greenish, even before evaporation; many sporules and threads of fungus; a hair or two; many fragments of dead vegetable tissue; no dia-tomaceæ, but a good many infusoria of genus oxytri-cha, of which there were two species. | Decided but not large | |
3. Pump in Curtain Road, opposite Chapel Street. | 10th June 1856 | 134.00 | 11.00 | A good many ova-cases, in large bunches; two species of fungus; fragments of vegetable tissue; a large number of animalcules, chiefly oxytrichæ. | Not great. | |
4. Pump in Curtain Road near Old St., Road | 9 th June 1856 | 75.50 | 5.5 | Many vorticella?, oxytri-chæ, and actinophrydes, and vibriones; myriads of sporules of fungus and thallus, or root-like portions of two species of fungus. | Not great. | |
B. Deep-Sand Wells. | 1. MrStanbridge's | 12 th June 1856 | 41.50 | 2.50 | Organic debris, sporules, and a few branches of a fungus; brown ova-cases; three or four fragments of decaying vegetable tissue; a few oxytrichæ. | Very small yellowish |
2. Independent Gas Works | 12th June 1856 | 34.00 | 2.00 | Organic debris; a few ova-cases; a little fungus; some oxytrichæ. | Scarcely any. | |
C. Chalk Water, called Artesian. | 1. Shoreditch Workhouse | 12 th June 1856 | 39.00 | 2.00 | A light film floating on the surface, consisting of organic debris; some threads of fungus; a hair of a mammal; a few fragments of vegetable tissue; a few animalcules. | A little of a yellow color. |
D. Water Companies. | 1. New River. 13, Devonshire Square | 12th June 1856 | 18.50 | 3.00 traces of nitrates | Abounding in organic matter, dead and living; many frustules of diato-maceæ, of different species; a great many infusoria and shells of entomortraceæ. | Considerable. |
2. East London. from Mr. Roper's | 12th June 1856 | 23.50 | 3.50 | Organic debris; threads of fungus; a few frustules of diatomaceæ; rather many infusoria, chiefly oxytri-chæ, but two or three actinophrydes. (Not unlike contents of Thames water). | Trifling. |