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163
During the past year, the river water supplied by the
several companies has been subjected to examination daily by
Messrs. Crookes, Odling, and Tidy, on behalf of the companies,
and the results of these examinations have been collected and
published in the form of an annual report. The writers say that
the water, as a rule, is efficiently filtered, the few samples not
entirelv free from suspended matter being coincident with and
dependent on the occurrence of periods of violent rain-fall.
The water was fully aerated or oxygenated, a fact of great importance
as demonstrating its high character in respect of its
freedom from putrescent matter. Of ammonia "1/500th of a grain
per gallon was the maximum amount found, and this on 12
occasions only: on 68 occasions the 1/1000th of a grain per gallon
was recorded, whilst 192 examinations revealed no appreciable
trace of ammonia whatsoever." "The quantity of nitrogen in
the form of nitrate or nitrite, ranges from about one and
a quarter tenths of a grain to two and a quarter tenths of a
grain per gallon, the quantity being on the average somewhat
lower in the summer and autumn than in the winter and spring
quarters . . the quantity of chlorine amounts ... to
either close upon or a little over one-tenth of a grain per gallon."
"With regard to the mineral matter held in solution in the
water it consists mainly of the carbonates of the alkaline
earths, with a small quantity of sulphates.nitrates, and chlorides:
no one suggests that the presence of these salts in the water is
prejudicial to health; while there is, on the contrary, some
reason to believe that they are actually useful to the animal
economy, as one means of supplying constituents required for
the organism." The examiners conclude their report with remarks
on the "wholesomeness" of the water, and quote "the pith of
the conclusion" of the last Royal Commission (1869) comprised
in the following paragraph from their report:—"Having carefully
considered all the information we have been able to collect,
we see no evidence to lead us to believe that the water now
supplied by the companies is not generally good and wholesome."
In their previous report the examiners stated their opinion