View report page

10
dry. The rain-fall of paved London passes at once into
the sewers. The water that percolates under London
comes from rain falling where the gravel is near the
surface, as on Wimbledon Common, &c., filters through
the loose soil, and finds its level in the gravel upon
which London is built This water always contained a
larger quantity of saline matter than river water; therefore
we must not condemn it for this alone. Too much
of it now contains organic matter, from the imperfect
condition of the brick-work of the wells, their dirty
and neglected condition, and their want of protection
from the possibility of contamination. I hope the
greater number of our London wells may still be preserved
to us by proper means, and it is to be lamented
that so large a supply of good drinking water should be
sacrificed without an effort to preserve it. I find in the
water from the pump in Covent Garden about 40 grains
of solid matter per gallon, while the new river contains
only 20; but I still prefer drinking the cool, fresh, and
sparkling spring water to the mawkish fluid of the New
River. There is no reason why water containing 40,
or even 60, grains of some salts should be condemned.
Our blood, also, contains a certain amount of salts, and
who can say that it may not be better supplied with
those essential ingredients for its healthy condition from
the laboratory of Nature than from the laboratories of
man? The minute subdivision and mixture of the saline
matter contained in wholesome spring water may be
necessary for health, and much of modern invalidism
result from neglecting this natural mode of supplying
our blood with some of its essential constituents.
The boiled water used for tea, coffee, beer, &c.,
has, by the process of boiling, been deprived of many
of its saline principles: and when we know how few
ever take into their stomachs any other fluid than what
is thus manufactured, I cannot think it a very improbable