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213
curtailed during several hours in the summer months. He has come
to look upon water as a domestic luxury, and views a lavish expenditure
of it for public purposes as almost unwarrantable waste. The
whole tendency of recent investigation points to the fact that bacteria
and all disease germs are potent for evil when associated with dust,
but are easily washed away in liquids. Who shall estimate the value
of the lives that probably would have been saved if there had been
no dust during the past Summer? Of what benefit as health resorts
are West Ham Park and our Recreation Grounds whilst they are in
the condition of arid deserts? We all recognize the beneficent
influence of rain, but feebly attempt, during seasons of drought, to
produce some of its effects with occasional road watering. I believe
one of the most crying wants of municipal life at the present time is a
copious supply of water for public purposes, and that this want will
force itself more and more on our attention during the coming years
CHARLES SANDERS,
Medical Officer of Health
Town Hall,
West Ham,
19th September, 1899.