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20
A supply of water which would keep the sewers practically
full would admit of very little necessity for ventilation.
The quality of the water has been very impure for a length
of time. In August last year I reported, " There is a very
generally expressed complaint of the bad quality of the
water furnished by the Southwark and Vauxhall Company.
The water from the mains of this Company frequently
contains much organic impurity, and is sometimes apparently
unfiltered." The Company at the time denied the correctness
of my statement, but the report of Dr. Frankland
on the analysis of the waters supplied by the Metropolitan
Water Companies during the year 1868, more than
confirms all I said upon the subject, as will be seen on
a reference to those reports, contained in the RegistrarGeneral's
last annual summary of weekly returns. It will
be also seen from Dr. Frankland's reports of 1869 that
what I wrote in August, last year, might have been
written with equal correctness and greater force every
month this year.
Remembering the now recognized influence exerted by
the use of impure water in the propagation of disease, and
looking to the exceptionally high mortality resulting from
Diarrhoea during the past year, the present impure supply
of water to this District presents itself as a subject of the
greatest sanitary importance for consideration.
GEORGE EDWARD NICHOLAS, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth.