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I trust to see, ere long, every cesspool in this parish abolished, as otherwise
from the nature of the subsoil our wells are certain to become
contaminated by their contents; and I would especially urge that all
drains should be constructed of the most impermeable material. Your
surveyor informs me that he intends to present to your Board a
Report on the sewerage of the Parish; I forbear therefore from entering
more fully into the subject, only strongly recommending that all places
at present imperfectly, or not at all provided therewith, should be immediately
furnished with that great requisite of health—Drainage.
WATER SUPPLY.
There is scarcely any circumstance possessing more influence on the
health of a locality, than the quality of the "Water Supply; and from a conviction,
of this, the subject has engaged a large amount of my attention.
"Water in a state of absolute purity, can only be procured by melting
Wenham Lake or some such ice, or by freezing ordinary water, with
certain precautions, to prevent any mechanical retention of impurities
contained in it previous to congelation; for it is a remarkable fact that
during freezing, water has the property of getting rid of every substance,
poisonous or otherwise, foreign to it.
The ordinary constituents of chalk waters, of which the Thames
must be taken as our example, are lime, magnesia, soda, potash, silicia,
iron, alumina, sulphuric acid, and chlorine.
The ordinary proportion of chlorine in these waters, previous to
contamination, is less than a grain in the gallon, and of magnesia less
than half-a-grain; but sewage matter and manure contain a considerable
quantity of chlorine and magnesian compounds, consequently
an increase in quantity of these substances over the proportions just
mentioned would serve as an index to the amount of such dangerous
introductions. Again, in pure chalk waters, the amount of sulphuric
acid is seldom great, while nitric and ammonia are absent. "When
sewage and other matters undergoing putrefaction find their way into
a river otherwise pure, chemical changes commence, which have a teadency
to destroy those poisonous bodies; thus we find, the offensive
compoimds of sulphur with hydrogen,—as sulphuretted hydrogen,
decomposed by the oxygen in the water, and in the air in contact with
it, producing sulphuric acid and water, whilst the ammonia undergoes
a somewhat similar change, leading to the formation of nitric acid.