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29
Dr. Frankland observes that the suspended matters in turbid water
generally abounded with moving organisms, and that his microscopical
examinations have shown the presence of these organisms in most of
the turbid samples delivered (inter alia†by the Chelsea and Grand
Junction Companies. No reference is made to the discovery of any
such bodies in the clear water of the West Middlesex Company.
Dr. Frankland's principal objections to River water may be summed
up as follows:—It is often turbid, i.e., dirty, and it then contains
"living and moving organisms," which are absent in well filtered
water; and the presence of which in water polluted with sewage
implies the possibility of the presence of those zymotic germs which
are not recognizable by the microscope, but which are believed by
almost all our physiological and medical authorities to be the cause
of epidemic disease. It contains solid matter, some of which, if not
always noxious, is at any moment liable to become so, the rest being
useless in potable water, and the greater part of it acting injuriously
in the operations of washing and cleansing. All this he describes as
"total solid impurity," one portion of it, moreover, being further
described as "previous sewage or animal contamination" due to the
actual introduction of vast quantities of sewage into the Thames
(besides the washings of animal manure from a large area of cultivated
land) which reaches the intake of the Water Companies before
the animal matter is destroyed.
But there is another side to the question, and it is ably handled
by Dr. Letheby, Medical Officer of Health to the City of London,
in his last Annual Report. He admits the occasional turbidity of
the water as supplied by the Chelsea and Grand Junction Companies—he
found it turbid on 8 occasions (monthly examinations) in
1871; but then, he says, that the turbidity is due "to the presence
of a very small quantity of finely divided clay, in which there was
occasionally a trace of vegetable tissue, and no doubt it had been
caused by the heavy floods of the River." He condemns vigorously
the "very alarming language" of Dr. Frankland in describing the
condition of the water, and quotes Major Bolton, the Water Examiner
appointed by the Board of Trade, who admits the occasional
turbidity of the water, and the presence of living organisms, but
attaches little importance to them; further observing that "it is to
be regretted that such terms as 'living organisms' have been used
so frequently and so idefinitely," for not only do they exist in all
water, but "it is impossible to get rid of the simplest forms of vegetable
and animal life, which should be understood by such terms,
even by the most perfect filtration," and he quotes the Report of the
Royal Commission to the effect that "in the present state of Chemical
Science analysis fails to discover in properly filtered Thames water
anything positively deleterious to health. Whatever may be the
difference of opinion with respect to the time required for removal
of all objectionable organic matter, all Chemists agree that in
Thames water taken from the present source and properly filtered,