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74
Professor Frankland, F.R.S., in his annual report to the RegistrarGeneral
on the monthly analysis of the waters supplied by the Metropolitan
Water Companies during 1878, furnishes valuable information,
which I propose to summarise as usual. The average daily supply by
the eight Companies was nearly 130 million gallons. Of this, quantity
the Professor says 65 million gallons were often much polluted with
organic matters of animal origin; 56 million gallons were occasionally
so polluted, but much less intensely; whilst only 8 million gallons
were uniformly delivered in a pure and wholesome condition:—the
water, namely, supplied by the Kent and Colne Valley Companies,
and by the Tottenham Board of Health; which, drawn from deep
wells, was uniformly wholesome throughout the year, and of most
excellent quality for dietetic purposes.
It is not a little interesting to note that of the waters supplied from
the Thames the Chelsea Company delivered the best—for it is not many
years since this Company occupied a position not very dissimilar to
that assigned to the Grand Junction Company in 1878, namely, that
of distributing the worst.
The average condition of the river waters distributed to London
was exceptionally bad—they have seldom been so intensely polluted
as in 1878, owing, doubtless, to the more frequent scouring out of the
sources of pollution of the Thames and Lea by floods. Referring to
the "organic elements" which constitute the pollution specially alluded
to, the late Rivers Commissioners in their report on the domestic water
supply of Great Britian, express an opinion that "potable water which
contains organic matter, even only partially derived from animal
sources, should not yield much more than 0.1 part of organic carbon in
100,000 parts of water," whereas the "organic elements" in the river
waters, consisting chiefly of "organic carbon" at the maximum of pollution,
greatly exceeded the standard. Only once since Dr. Frankland
commenced his observations on Thames water had it been so much
polluted by organic matter as during 1878. The river was often in
high flood even in summer, and much filthy matter, ordinarily retained
in sewers and cesspools during the summer months, was swept into
the river. The Lea water was superior to the Thames; nevertheless,
in June and December it also was unsuitable for dietetic purposes; but
the New River Company supplied the water of this river in much
better condition than the East London Company.