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15
to give this advice; and most important advice it is
when cholera is threatened or when diarrhœa much
prevails, for there is no one fact more clearly proved
than the increase of these diseases wherever impure
water has been used; both at Newcastle and in
St. James's Parish, in the last outbreak of cholera, the
fatality would have been greatly diminished had no
water been drank but that which had been boiled.
We ought to recognise two kinds of water—one for
internal and one for external use. It is surely absurd
to use water that has been subjected to the expensive
process of filtration for water-closets, street watering,
and sewer flushing; for these and many common purposes,
mere subsidence is sufficient, and the saving of
money would have supplied all our population with
wholesome drinking water. I believe that the Artesian
Well in Orange Street would supply every house in
St. James's and St. Martin's Parishes with from 30 to
50 gallons of its beautiful water daily, and that such an
offer was made for ten shillings per house per annum;
so that if we had recognised two kinds of water, one
for internal use and one for common purposes, we
should all have had a good supply of spring water for
less money than the water companies have added to our
former rates, from the enormous expenses they have
been forced to incur. Yet are we still unprovided
with drinkable water, and multitudes are not within a
reasonable distance of a pump of pure spring water to
rectify this monstrous evil.
Lionel J. Beale.