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the provisions of the Metropolis Water Acts of 1852 and 1871,
which regulations have, after due and very full inquiry, received
the sanction of the Board of Trade. These regulations provide for
the prevention of improper waste and contamination of the water,
and also, as far as possible, an equal delivery to houses on different
levels: having been in force now since the 10th of August
of last year, and a sum of £5 being the penalty for their violation,
it is advisable that the public should clearly understand
their nature. The regulations provide that the water companies
must be consulted previously to the water supply to new dwelling
houses being fixed; that no house may have more than
one pipe of communication, but that every house must have its own
pipe, except in the case of blocks of houses, the water-rate of which
is paid by one owner; that screw taps only shall be employed ; that
no water-pipe shall, if it can possibly be prevented, be laid through
a drain, but, if impossible to avoid, that certain precautions shall be
adopted to prevent contamination; that to prevent the action of
frost, the pipe shall be of a certain depth ; that no pipe in connection
with the Company shall be connected with a rain-water receptacle;
that no waste pipe shall hereafter be allowed, and that all wastepipes—that
is, pipes the ends of which are not visible, and the outlet
of which may be into drains—shall be converted into warning-pipes,
the ends of which are visible, and so easily examined ; that except
under certain conditions, no underground cistern or wooden butt
without a proper metallic lining shall be allowed; that where a
stand-pipe is erected for the supply of a group of houses, or for other
purposes, "a waste-water preventer" must be employed; that in
the case of water-closets, a service-box so constructed as not to
deliver more than 2 gallons of water at each flush to the pan, shall
be erected, this service-box being refilled from a store cistern ; that
under no circumstances shall any pipe communicating with the
water-closet be in direct communication with the Companies' pipes;
that Bath apparatus shall be constructed so as to prevent undue
waste. It is provided, however, "that all existing fittings, if sound
and efficient, which are not required to be removed or altered under
these regulations, shall be deemed to be prescribed fittings under
the Metropolis Water Act of 1871." But the public must be prepared
for further changes in rendering the constant supply more
universal. Fittings for the present supply will not answer for the