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63
WATER-SUPPLY.
in grounding my appeal on the common principles
of taste.
On the incidental contaminations to which the
pipe-water consumed within the City becomes liable,
by reason of its storage in receptacles both foul in
themselves and surrounded by causes of foulness,
I have already addressed you; and I have shown
to you the dependence of this evil on the system of
intermittent supply as adapted to the houses of the
poor.
Of other sources of water-supply existing within
the City of London, there are many of small extent
in the form of superficial springs. These are
eagerly sought after, sometimes from a distance,
on account of their coolness, and sparkling condition.
In the Appendix you will find an account of one
of these waters, that in the vicinity of Bishopsgate
church, which is very much drunk in that quarter
of the City. Any praise given to it illustrates exceedingly
the fallacy of popular judgment on such
subjects, and shows how easily those qualities of
coolness and freshness, which are absent from stored
waters, impose on the palate, and induce a preference
to be given to waters which are relatively
most objectionable.
The chemical faults which belong to our London
pipe-water are possessed in a far greater degree
by this water of Bishopsgate pump, and the latter
has moreover some vices which are absent from the
former; but the vapidity and fustiness of water