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70
similar waters at various places in the Provinces. There is good
reason for the belief, however, that soft and moderately hard waters
if equally free from deleterious organic substances, are equally
wholesome for dietetic purposes.

Colonel Bolton reports that the intakes of all the local companies
are now high up the river at Hampton and Molesey. The
West Middlesex Company having large reservoir capacity for subsidence,
avoid taking in water during floods; a new filter bed
at Barnes has been taken into use. The construction by the
Grand Junction Company of further impounding reservoirs for
subsidence at the intake at Hampton (so as to avoid the flood
waters) is in contemplation, as this company will require
such reservoirs before they can deliver effectually filtered
water during the period when floods prevail. The Chelsea
Company's works at Molesey are rapidly approaching completion.
Two out of four new storage reservoirs will shortly
be taken into use, and then we may expect that this Company will
supply water as little open to objection as that drawn from the
river by the West Middlesex Company. With reference to the
question of filtration, Colonel Bolton informs us that the rate
should not exceed 540 gallons per square yard of filter bed
each 24 hours, and at this rate filtration should be effectual.
Colonel Bolton persistently calls attention in his monthly reports
to the 14th regulation made under the Metropolis Water
Act, 1871, relative to waste-pipes, to which I also have frequently
adverted. This regulation, he says, if carried out in its integrity,
will prevent contamination of the water from the gases generated
by sewage, which are extremely liable to flow back into
the cisterns, and become absorbed by the water, unless the
overflow pipe is brought outside the house, and the end left
exposed to the air, instead of being carried into the drain. The
terms of the regulation are as follow :—" No overflow or waste-