View report page

122
DISINFECTION.
During the year ended March 25th, 1884, a large number
of infected articles of clothing, bedding, furniture, &c., were
satisfactorily disinfected by the contractor at the cost of your
Vestry, the owners being too poor to bear the expense. The
weight of the articles was more than 9 tons : their number
4,015 ; and the cost of the process £181. Two hundred and
sixty rooms in 215 houses were disinfected with sulphurous
acid by your Vestry's officer, no charge being made in the
majority of instances. Many rooms were disinfected by the
contractor, aswell as numerous parcels of clothing, bedding,
&c., at the cost of persons able to pay.
WATER SUPPLY.
Professor Frankland's Report.—Believing it desirable
that your Vestry, as the body responsible in this great parish
for carrying into effect the provisions of sanitary legislation,
should receive the best information on all points connected
with the water supply, a subject of great importance in relation
to the public health, it has been my custom, year by
year, to summarise the reports prepared annually by Professor
Frankland, for the Registrar.General, and by Colonel Sir
Francis Bolton, R.E., the " Water Examiner," appointed
under the Metropolis Water Act, 1871. I do so again. Dr.
Frankland deals mainly with the quality of the water in its
chemical and microscopical aspects, and in respect to its
fitness for dietetic and domestic purposes ; he being, as is
well known, adverse to riparian sources of supply: while Sir
Francis Bolton's observations have reference, inter alia, to the
condition of the water in bulk, at the intakes, and to its
physical qualities when delivered to the consumer—in a
word, to whatever relates to the collection, filtration, storage,
and distribution of the water.
London is mainly supplied from the rivers Thames and Lea, but a considerable
and increasing quantity of water is obtained from deep wells sunk
in the chalk, not only by the Companies which obtain their entire