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ravages of the disease would doubtless have been less considerable than they were. Coincidently with
increased recognition of the need of safeguarding the purity of potable water, there has
apparently been diminution in the use of cold water as a beverage, for there has been steady increase
in the consumption of liquids other than cold water. The palatability of water is well known to depend
largely upon its contained gases, and it may be that the growing popularity of aerated waters is in
part attributable to the fact that modern methods of water supply have in some instances led to
loss by the water of its sparkling quality, and thus to a sense of need of this quality being
again imparted to it by artificial means. Many women and children and some men frequently drink
London water, but I have been surprised, on making inquiry, to find that a large number of persons
only do so quite exceptionally, and not a few men appear only to take water when admixed with spirits.
In places resorted to by the public for meals, very little water is as a rule consumed ; the greatly
increased consumption of tea and coffee must imply greatly diminished consumption of other forms
of beverage, and probably cold water has suffered more than anything else. The common practice of
providing water-bottles in offices, board-rooms, etc., must be regarded rather as throwing light upon
the habits of a past generation of Londoners than as indicating that cold water is largely consumed
by business men during office hours at the present day, for I am told that these bottles are not as a
rule used. Among common lodging-house inmates cold water is looked upon as a medicine, and in
only exceptional instances is it resorted to as a means of quenching thirst.
The steady growth in popularity during recent years of aerated waters is, in so far as they
replace alcoholic beverages, fraught with most important influence for good, and it is especially
desirable therefore that there should be reason for assuming that due care is taken in the processes
of manufacture, and that all avoidable risks are adequately guarded against.
Inspection of premises upon which aerated water is manufactured.
I have visited a few large and medium sized factories, and a considerable number of the
smaller establishments upon which aerated water is made. The premises of the large makers present
a general similarity so far as the processes of manufacture are concerned, though the class of goods
produced is not in all instances identical. Some makers carry on what is known as "a grocer's
business," others deal in the main with hotels and public-houses, others supply chemists' shops more
particularly, and again a very large trade is carried on in "highly sweetened, fancy, cheap goods,"
which are retailed at general shops, especially in the poorer parts of London. Numbers of small
makers are to be found in the Bast-end; they are as a rule foreign immigrants, and their prices rule
much lower than those of the English makers. One of the latter told me that " the foreigners " were
selling "two-dozen boxes" for 9d. (retailed at 1s.), the goods being, so far as appearance of bottles,
etc., was concerned, such as he had been for years supplying at 1s. 6d. (retailed at 2s.). In Stepney
I have found, in the same little general shop, both "halfpenny foreign lemonade" (purchased by
the retailer at 4½d. *a dozen, and sold at 6d.), and lemonade made by one of the London manufacturers
(purchased by the retailer at 1s. per dozen and sold at 1s. 6d.)
The foreign makers may be divided into three classes. In class I. the operations resemble those
of the large makers, but are conducted on a less extensive scale. In class II. bottling is carried on in quite
a small way, the carbonic acid is not as a rule made on the premises, but cylinders containing liquid carbonic
acid are employed; "a cylinder" for mixing water with the gas, "a filler" and a pump are ordinarily
used—these can be purchased, I was told, for from ,£35-£40 ready money; in many instances, they are,
however, paid for on the instalment system, and this arrangement leads sometimes to far larger sums
being ultimately expended. The appliances for cleansing bottles in places of the kind under consideration
are more or less similar to those seen in larger establishments but frequently they are of a
much more primitive character. In class 111. no bottling is done but a cylinder of liquid carbonic
acid is kept, in or near to a shop, often in a cellar beneath it; the gas is mixed with water in a mixer and
conveyed to a tap situated over the shop counter, so that it can be drawn off, added to one or other
kind of syrup and sold, usually at ½d. a glass, as Hollands, raspberry, aniseed, lovage, shrub, pineapple,
etc., according to the taste of the consumer. These ½d. glassfuls are purchased largely by foreign
tailors, shoemakers, etc., and I was repeatedly told that the trade in cheap aerated waters was producing
an appreciable effect upon the sale of beer. With the foreign immigrants beer has never, it seems,
been a popular drink, and I was assured by a foreign aerated water manufacturer in Whitechapel that
"four-ale" was losing ground with the native population resident in his neighbourhood. This man
pointed out that whereas two glasses of "four-ale" for a man and his friend cost 2d., two glasses of
aerated water could be obtained for 1d.
It is impossible to consider in detail in this report the mechanism of the many forms of apparatus
in use at premises upon which bottling is carried on. I propose therefore merely to refer to some of the
obvious risks of addition of impurity to aerated water which have come under my observation.
(i.) Source of supply—First and foremost there is the question of the source of the water
employed. In London it is generally derived from a public supply; a few of the large
firms have private wells, and the water from these wells is, in most instances, from time to time
analysed. (A number of such analyses are given in the Medical Press of Jan., 1899, p. 49.) It is
clearly desirable that systematic examination of the water from these wells should be made by a
public authority. Again, the water used for washing bottles, etc., should be of equally good
quality with that actually charged with gas. In the Medical Press (loc. cit.) mention is made of an
instance in which a manufacturer, who found his water supply was unsatisfactory, changed it,
but contemplated, until dissuaded from doing so, using the old supply for the purpose of washing
bottles.
* I am told that "cutting the price " is sometimes carried to the extent of supplying a dozen half-bottles of
"soda water" for 3½d.