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thirty years this population had increased from 816,814 to its
present number. That, however, gives but a poor idea of the
increase which is going on in the urban population living on
the banks of the Thames and its Tributaries, many of these
towns having more than doubled their size in thirty years.
"Besides this human population there are probably 1,600,000
animals inhabiting the above area." Consequently it is clear
that if the Thames is to be retained as a source of water supply,
the people of London must drink the more or less clarified
excreta of this vast population.
To show what is likely to happen in the future, it is mentioned
that in the present session of Parliament "the authorities
of Swindon and Ticehurst, Pangbourne and district are applying
for further water powers. What must be the result? They
will either pump from wells or the River comparatively clean
water which now flows down to supply London, and after
defiling it by passing it through their bodies and water closets
will return it directly or indirectly into the Thames to flow down
and be drunk by the people of London."
Impossible to Keep Out Sewage.
Now about the purification of this water. Dr. Frankland
is quoted as saying "That it is practically impossible to keep
sewage or sewage effluents out of the River."
"There is no positive evidence that the filtered water is
unwholesome, but the lives of a large community ought not to
be dependent on the efficient filtering plant of commercial
companies. Under present circumstances, a serious epidemic
of typhoid or cholera in the Thames basin above the intakes,
would be attended with great risk to the water drinkers of
London. Such experiments should not be tried upon large
communities."
It would appear, then, that while Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham find it necessary "to