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9
more to engender disease among adults than overcrowding,
or even dirty habits; it is upon the children that
the latter are so fatal.
In promoting the drinking of water it is of great importance
to supply it good and palatable. Much has
been done to improve the water of the New River and
other London Companies. It is bright, and not very
impure; but it is not palatable. In the bed of gravel
underlying the greater part of London is an abundant
supply of spring water, when uncontaminated, most
agreeable to the palate and beneficial to health. It is
probably in sufficient quantity for drinking purposes for
our whole population; and it does seem lamentable that
so much good water close to us should be permitted to
remain unfit for use if anything can be done to render
it as wholesome as it still is refreshing. I am willing to
admit that many of our surface wells are deteriorated,
and some rendered unfit for use by the admixture of
extraneous and noxious matter with the water. But
there are some still supplying wholesome water. I
should like to see these preserved, and the others improved.
Doubtless many of the wells are imperfect;
the brick-work in a state of decay from time, rats, and
other causes. Sometimes a drain or a sewer is in too
close contact, and foul matter permeates into the well.
But it is surely possible to remedy these and other
defects; if it be impossible, and the evidence against
the water of an individual well is conclusive, let it be
closed; but do not let us condemn indiscriminately all
our London pumps, and deny ourselves the use of the
beautiful water which Nature has supplied in the gravel
of the London basin. With regard to the possibility of
any injury to the water of the London wells from rain
percolating through the foul mass of earth under our
paving stones, it is hardly necessary to say anything;
turn up this gas-fed stinking matter where you will, it is