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47
their new works with all possible despatch. We may hope,
therefore, that this Company will soon be in a position to supply
water as good as that of any other Company, and that the Companies
generally will be able to supply all parts of the parish
with clear and transparent water.
The question of constant supply, however, makes very slow
progress, though there is no doubt of the power of the " Metropolitan
authority" (Metropolitan Board of Works) to demand it,
or of the power of the Companies to give it. In the East of
London the East London Waterworks Company are giving constant
supply to very large areas, and the same may be said of the district
supplied by the Kent Company. Constant supply for domestic
purposes, however, without the abolition of cisterns, would be a
doubtful gain, the principal cause of pollution of water being the dirty
neglected state of the receptacles which are often left uncovered
and rarely cleaned out-the latter defect being in many cases
attributable to the difficulty of getting at them. As a rule the
water is delivered clear and transparent, filtration being effectual,
especially by those Companies that have provided large reservoirs in
which the water is allowed to stand for some days to allow of the
subsidence of suspended impurities. But it is of little use getting
clear water if it is put into dirty tubs or similar receptacles.
Domestic filters, moreover, are often a delusion, being left undisturbed
for long periods, as though they were capable of selfcleansing.
It is not uncommon to receive complaints of bad water
even when the water has been filtered on the premises, the cause
being a dirty cistern or a dirty filter. Moving organisms have in
such cases been perceptible to the naked eye—and the entire subject
of complaint has been removed by a little attention to cleanliness*
It would be well, however, if local sanitary authorities
were clothed with greater powers in dealing with questions of
water supply, which are now governed by regulations framed by
the Companies and sanctioned by the Board of Trade, whose powers
have since been transferred to the Local Government Board.
As these "water regulations" were settled after an exhaustive
enquiry by a Government commission, at which the Companies
and the Metropolitan authority were represented, there can
be no doubt that sanitary purposes were contemplated, as well
as the prevention of waste: but practically the regulations are
carried out (when acted on at all) as if the prevention of waste were
the sole object of them. As an illustration I may more particularly
allude to the 14th regulation, which runs thus : " No
*The subjoined extract from one of my monthly reports will bear repetition:
A fatal case of diphtheria in a house in Elsham-road led to the premises being
inspected with the following results: "The cause of the illness would appear to
have been the unsanitary condition of the house. There are two water-closets in
the centre of the house and ventilating into it. The large water cistern in the roof
sjas found uncovered and in a filthy condition, while the cistern in the basement
contained the wing cases of hundreds of cockroaches, whose bodies had been
slowly macerated and consumed by the household. The larger cistern, moreover,
was in direct communication with the soil-pipe by means of the waste-pipe. In all
probability these cisterns had not been cleansed for years.''