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231
isms isolated from sewage possess pathogenic properties," a
medical expert has been associated with the chemists in this
particular examination. In a report to the Council by the
Main Drainage Committee, it has been stated that the
hypothesis that sewer air is " dangerous, and a likely source
of infection in certain specific diseases," has been found to be
incorrect. It is not denied that " sewer air in some instances
has apparently had some causal relation to zymotic disease" ;
but it is said to be " conceivable that the danger of sewer
air causing disease is an indirect one; (for) it may contain
some highly poisonous chemical substances, possibly of an
alkaloidal nature, which, though present in but minute
quantities, may nevertheless produce, in conjunction with the
large excess of carbonic acid, a profound effect upon the
general vitality." Further reports on this important subject
will be awaited with interest.
WATER SUPPLY.
Report of the Royal Commission.—The report of
the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the water
supply of the Metropolis, which was presented last year, is
very favourable indeed to the Companies, and confirms the
accuracy of the views which, from time to time, during the
last twenty years, I have submitted to your Vestry; to the
effect that, for all practical purposes, the water supply of
the Metropolis is excellent and satisfactory. Not a particle
of evidence, so far as I am aware, was produced to the Commission,
establishing any connection between the water and
the occurrence of disease of any kind. In far distant years,
when the water was not filtered with the care now bestowed
upon that all important process, cholera was diffused by the
agency of water in one Company's District, at the East End,
through causes that might fairly be described as accidental.
And should the conditions recur, the same thing might
happen again. But this is not at all probable, and the risk