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42
WATER-SUPPLY.
gauged every hour, during the night as well as the
day, on days when the water was on, that is to say,
when the intermittent supplies were delivered, and
also on the ordinary days, when the consumption of
the houses was from butts and cisterns, into which
the intermittent supplies were delivered. The gaugings
of the discharge of waste water into the sewer
were checked by gaugings of the consumption of
water from the butts and cisterns, during the intervals
of the delivery of the supply by the company.
It was ascertained that the average quantity discharged
per diem through the sewers was 441/2 gallons
per house; but it appeared that, on the days
when the intermittent supplies of water were on,
the quantity discharged per diem was 209 gallons
per house. The waste in this district from defects
in house-apparatus of distribution, incident to an
intermittent supply of water, was, on the water days,
three and three quarter times greater than the consumption
on those days."
No similar gaugings have, I believe, been made
within the City; so I am unable to tell you with
accuracy what are the proportions of waste and consumption.
In an interview with your Committee on
Health, when they were collecting information on
the subject, Mr. Mylne, the engineer of the New
River Company, stated (as a reason against fulfilling
some object desired by the Committee) that within
the City of London, in connection with its distributing
apparatus, there existed for the escape and