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Complaints have been made of a nuisance from the soaks for
foreign hides at 159, Long Lane; of a nuisance from boilingtrotters
in Gibbins's Yard, Alderminster Road: and of a nuisance
from boiling animal matter at 211, Southwark Park Road. I have
visited these premises and have, written to all the parties concerned
desiring them to abate. the nuisances complained of.
The water supplied by the- Southwark and other Companies
during the month of August was reported by Dr. Frankland to be
"efficiently filtered, but quite unfit for dietetic purposes owing to the
large quantity of organic matter which it contained." I think this
unqualified statement is likely to occasion unnecessary alarm. The
total solid matter is less than a third part of a teaspoonful in every
gallon. The greater part of that solid matter is chalk or harmless
salts. The amount of free organic matter is about one grain in
three gallons of water. The larger portion of that is of vegetable
origin. There are no medical facts which support the opinion that
river water of this character, when efficiently filtered, is really unwholesome.
The water which is obtained from the deep chalk wells
is doubtless of most excellent quality from a chemist's point of view,
but medical men have failed to discover any difference worth noting
in the death rates, or any evidence whatsoever that any special class
of disease has been prevalent, from drinking the waters of the
Thames and Lea, or absent from the use of chalk water. Indeed,
what differences exist are in favour of the river water over that of
the chalk wells.
From the recent concurrence of an increased amount of
dissolved organic impurity in the river water and an increased number
of the deaths from diarrhoea, it may be supposed that the former
is the cause of the. latter. Such is not necessarily the case. During
the last few weeks the number of deaths from diarrhæa have been
quite as numerous, in proportion to the population, in the districts
which are supplied by the Kent Water Company as in other
districts which are supplied by the. Southwark and Lambeth
Companies. In the. third quarter of last year the proportional
amount of organic elements in the river water compared with that
of the chalk wells, was 5.9 to 1 The number of deaths in London
from diarrhæa was 1184. In the same quarter of the previous
year (1878) the proportionate amount of impurity in the river
water was only 3.4 to 1, but the deaths from diarrhæa were 2932
In the first quarter of 1872, the Thames water was 9½ times as im-