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21
life. This is the work of nature: and why should water be the one
exception to the rule? Is it the only thing in the world which
cannot be purified by nature's agencies? Some, it would seem, would
almost tell you so; but for myself, regarding the subject from a
strictly scientific view-point, I am convinced otherwise. Regard
it, however, for a moment, not from the scientific point of view, but
from the practical point of view. Is there any real case against
River Water? I answer unhesitatingly, No. Is London an
unhealthy City? On the contrary, it is the healthiest large City in
the world. Given a district supplied by Chalk Water, do statistics
show that the people in that district are healthier, less susceptible to
typhoid and other diseases, and live longer than the people in a
district supplied by River Water? We have such a district in that
supplied by the Kent Water Company, the water of which Company
is distributed to an area extending from Camberwell to Dartford in
one direction, and from the Thames to Chislehurst and Bromley in the
other. This Company derive their water entirely from deep wells in
the chalk; and magnificent water it undoubtedly is. No finer
water can be conceived, but for all this whatever differences exist in
the death rate and in the sickness rate, these differences are in favor
of River over that of Spring Water.
But it may be said, if you have such faith in River Water for a
town supply, why are you always examining it? Of course I admit
the possibility of a certain risk, but I affirm that the risk in the case of
River Water is not one whit greater, provided the water be kept
free from contamination for some miles above the intake (and Acts
of Parliament enable this now-a-days to be done), than in the case
of a well or of a spring. It would, of course, be folly to say there
is absolutely no risk ; but it is to my mind certain that practically
there is no risk. You may in taking a walk breathe the ' materies
morbi', that will set up and develop scarlet fever in your system,
or you may fall down and break your leg. I mean these as illustrations
of a certain risk that occurs in every step we take and in every
breath we breathe, but which it would be absurd to affirm are to be
regarded as arguments against breathing or walking. At any rate,
the risk is no greater at the present time with Thames or Lea
water, as now collected by the Companies from those rivers, than it