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noted was due to some temporary cause. Had this existed at the height of a
cholera epidemic, we may fairly conclude that it would have been attended with
just as serious consequences, as the use of similar water is proved to have
produced in 1854.
The water obtained from the river at Hampton is no doubt purer than that
formerly obtained from Barnes. But as the river above this point receives the
drainage from Windsor, Eton, Reading, and other places, it is by no means
free from objection, and will every year become more and more impure, unless
the sewerage of these towns be differently disposed of.
The number of houses in this parish without any water supply is very small;
indeed I have not met with any cases of this defect, except such as were temporary,
and due to arrears in the payment of water rates; several cases of this
kind have been noticed in my monthly reports. The system of supplying courts,
comprising several houses, by means of one stand-cock, to which water is turned
on for about half-an-hour in the day, is, I am glad to say, going out of use, and
only two cases of the kind have come to my knowledge in this parish. Water
is supplied daily, except on Sundays, by the New River and West Middlesex
Companies to all their tenants, and for the most part by the Hampstead Company.
The figures given above as to the amount of water sent out, may give a very
erroneous impression of the quantity supplied to each person in houses, when
there are 5 or 6 families with from 40 to 60 persons. Such houses are usually
furnished with a miserable wooden butt, capable of containing sometimes but
a few gallons.
Before giving an account of the qualities of water supplied by these three
Companies, it may be well for me to make some general observations on
waters used for drinking. In chemical language water is Baid to be pure
when it contains nothing dissolved or suspended in it. The nearest approach
to pure water supplied by nature is rain water. All spring and river waters
contain saline matters obtained from the soil, varying in quality and quantity,
according to the strata through which they pass, and some carbonic acid
gas; they usually contain a small amount of organic matter, that is, matter
derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom. Some of these ingredients,
though they are called impurities, yet in small quantities are not objectionable
in drinking water, and render the water more palatable. The "hardness" of
water depends on the quantity of salts of lime and magnesia which it contains;
it is measured by degrees, one degree meaning that there is a quantity of lime
corresponding to one grain of chalk in every gallon of water. By permanent
hardness is intended that which is not removed by boiling, whilst temporary
hardness is the amount that is got rid of by boiling; in the results given subsequently
five minutes' boiling was used. The hardness of water used for
washing causes a large consumption of soap, it also much increases the labour of
washing, and the wear of the articles washed. Each degree of hardness requires
a consumption of about two ounces to a hundred gallons of water; so that one
hundred gallons of water, of 15 degrees of hardness, require about two pounds
of soap more than would be needed by rain water, or water free from the salts
of lime and magnesia. This may be regarded by some as of little moment in a
sanitary aspect, but in my opinion anything which discourages and renders more
expensive the thorough and frequent washing of clothes among the poor has a
very important influence upon the spread of disease. Hard water, again, is
much less fit for tea making, for cooking, and for brewing. To weakly persons,
and those subject to some forms of dyspepsia, hard water is decidedly less wholesome
than soft. The hardness of the water supplied by the Companies to this
parish can be much reduced by boiling for a quarter of an hour, and this
property may be taken advantage of in washing and cooking. Another method
of reducing the hardness of such water as these is to employ lime water, as
recommended by Dr. Clarke and practised by the Plumpstead and Woolwich
Water Company. One advantage of this last method is, that it removes a largo
quantity of organic matter, together with the carbonate of lime.
The amount of organic matter in a water is frequently taken as an indication
of its fitness or unfitness for internal use. This test requires some qualification.