London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1903
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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Wandsworth Parish as land was not available. The erection of a mortuary in Greenwich is in
progress.
There would appear to be an increasing use of mortuaries by the public for the temporary
deposit of bodies pending burial. In the several districts the number of bodies received into
mortuaries in 1903 was as follows—Paddington 304, and 4 infectious bodies; in Kensington 296,
and 4 infectious; in Hammersmith 182, of which 4 were infectious; in Fulham 191, and 1
infectious; in Chelsea 107; in Westminster 393, and 1 infectious; in St. Marylebone 583, and
6 infectious; in Hampstead 74; in St. Pancras 424, and 4 infectious; in Islington 680, and 1
infectious; in Stoke Newington 37; in Hackney 394, and 10 infectious; in Holborn 130, and 13
infectious; in Finsbury 402 and 7 infectious; in the City 190; in Shoreditch 447, and 3 infectious;
in Bethnal-green 385; in Stepney 690, and 3 infectious; in Southwark 471, and 4
infectious; in Poplar 428, and 5 infectious; in Bermondsey 190; in Lambeth 437; in Battersea
215, and 8 infectious; in Camberwell 318; in Deptford 95; in Greenwich 138; in Lewisham
116, and 2 infectious; in Woolwich 187.
Water Supply.
The following particulars as to the filtration works of the several water companies are extracted from the annual report of the water examiner appointed under the Metropolis Water Act, 1871—
| Subsidence reservoirs. | Filters. | Monthly rate of filtration per square foot per hour, 1903. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of company. | No. of days' supply. | Area. | Area per million gallons of average daily supply. | Mean monthly average. | Maximum monthly averages. |
| Chelsea | 16.0 | 8 | .67 | 1.60 | 1.85 |
| East London | 59.5 | 31 | .77 | 1.18 | 1.33 |
| Grand Junction | 3.4 | 24 1/4 | 1.43 | .87 | .98 |
| Lambeth | 15.9 | 14 3/4 | .50 | 2.14 | 2.37 |
| New River | 4.2 | 16 5/6 | .42 | 2.44 | 2.86 |
| Southwark and Vauxhall | 12.5 | 23 | .74 | 1.45 | 1.90 |
| West Middlesex | 17.4 | 22 1/3 | .97 | 1.28 | 1.47 |
The water examiner urges the necessity of all the water companies passing water drawn
from the river into a storage reservoir before letting it on to the filter beds, and of the delivery of
water from each filter into a distinct well so that distinctive examples may be obtained for
examination, and failure in the efficiency of filtration may be traced to the particular filter which
is at fault.
Dr. Thorpe states that "the year 1903 has been a very exceptional one in respect to rainfal
and by watching the effects of the heavy floods in the river Thames on the quality of the metropolitan
water supply it has been possible to gain more definite information on this important
subject in a single twelve months than could have been obtained by observations extending over
many ordinary years."
Dr. Thorpe's study of the subject leads him to the following conclusions—
1. That 16 to 18 days' storage is not sufficient, and that it should be increased so
that the several works could, if necessary, entirely exclude the river water for at least 15
days, and still have water available for some weeks' supply.
2. That all water ought to be regularly stored before use and that storage should not
be treated, as it is at present in some cases, as a mere reserve or standby.
3. That when the river is in flood the proportion of soluble organic impurity in the
water is always high, and that merely excluding the top of a flood will not ensure a supply
which, even after storage and Alteration, can be considered satisfactory in regard to colour
and organic purity.
4. That when one flood follows another, after a short interval of time, it does not
appear that the second flood brings down proportionally less organic impurity than the
first, and this observation is also generally true with regard to a succession of floods.
5. That if the best use could be made of the Thames as a source of supply, in order to
secure water which after storage and filtration should neither contain excessive amounts
of organic matter nor have a marked high colour, it would often be necessary to altogether
refrain from abstracting water when the "natural flow" at Teddington exceeded
2,000,000,000 gallons per day.
6. That in order to remedy the present state of affairs, it is very desirable that the
Staines reservoirs, already constructed, should without delay be called into regular and
systematic use.
The effects of the rainfall on the water supply are commented on in the reports by Dr.
Thorpe. In June Dr. Thorpe states the water was of"very high colour, and considerable organic
contamination was supplied by the Thames companies possessing but little storage. In the case
of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company, on the 19th June the "oxygen consumed probably
represented an amount of total organic impurity which has not been exceeded in a London water
during the last thirty-four years." Again, in November Dr. Thorpe reported that "the floods in
the Thames valley during October had a greater general adverse effect on the quality of the London
water than any of the earlier floods," the largest maximum amounts of organic impurities being