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22
I must here congratulate the parish upon the possession of so admirable
a water as that drawn from the artesian well: it must be
considered as a perfect uncontamiuated sample of soft water, possessing
all those excellent qualities so much required where cleanliness is of
paramount value for the preservation of health among so large a number
of persons as is necessarily collected together in a workhouse.
It is a water that not only diminishes labour in washing, but requires,
comparatively, so small an amount of soap as must necessarily occasion
an annual saving in the cost of that material.
That quality of water which is designated hardness, is principally
dependent on the presence of lime and magnesia salts, which may be
considered as of two kinds; those which are deposited during ebullition,
and those which cannot be separated by any amount of boiling.
The waters of the Thames are hard previous to boiling, but lose
the quarter amount, after ebullition.
The waters of the artesian well and Chelsea Grove deep well, are
previous to boiling, of about the same hardness as Thames water when
boiled; but this is almost entirely lost after boiling.
The waters of the superficial wells are extremely hard, both before
and after boiling.
Before leaving this part of my subject, I consider it my duty to urge
most strenuously, upon all parishioners, the great necessity of care
being exercised in the preservation of the water used for drinking
purposes. All wooden buts and tubs should be removed, on account
of the great liability to decomposition, and well covered slate or
stone cisterns should be substituted. These should be examined and
thoroughly cleaned out several times in the year. Special attention
should however be paid to the mode of cleaning leaden cisterns, lest
by removing the crust from the sides, the bright surface, of the metal
should be exposed, thus rendering the water liable to be contaminated
with salts of lead. A want of due precaution in this respect has been
known to produce diseases, which eventually, have been found to have
resulted from the presence of carbonate of lead in the drinking water.
I have examined, during the past year, immense numbers of water
receptacles, in the houses of the rich as well as the poor, and find
them alike, neglected and dirty. A microscopic examination of the
waters from these sources, after being allowed to stand for a short
time, shews the presence of trifusorial animalcules, and numerous low
forms of vegetable growth, belonging to the orders, diatomacese and
confervæ.