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reservoirs. During the greater part of the year the water contained
only a very moderate amount of organic matter, the
analyses shewing that the Thames water, supplied in 1889, was
" superior to that of any former year as regards comparative
freedom from organic impurity"—the several waters not
differing much from each other in respect of organic matter.
Nearly all of the samples of river water were clear and transparent
when drawn from the mains, a fact creditable to the
Companies as evidence of the care taken in filtration. From
the sanitary point of view the deep-well waters are very superior,
the exhaustive filtration they undergo, in passing through a great
depth of porous strata, being far in excess of what can be effected
by the sand filtration, highly valuable as it is, to which the river
waters are subjected.
The "Water Examiner's Report. — I am indebted to the
courtesy of Major-General A. de C. Scott, R.E., the Water
Examiner, for an early copy of his Annual Report for 1889,
from which many of the following particulars are taken.
General Scott's duties as Water Examiner are multifarious.
He makes monthly inspections of the several Metropolitan
water works, filter beds, reservoirs, &c.; examines the quality of
the water, both at the intakes and after filtration at the works ;
and reports, monthly, the results of such inspections and
examinations to the Local Government Board. Upon him
rests the responsibility of seeing that the requirements of
Section 4 of the Metropolis Water Act of 1852 are complied with
—viz., that " every Company shall effectually filter all water
supplied by them within the Metropolis before the same shall
pass into the pipes for distribution." The effectual filtration
of river water depends, according to the late Sir F. Bolton
(the first Water Examiner, appointed under the Act of 1871)
upon :
1. A sufficient area of properly constructed filter beds, constantly
cleaned, and fresh sanded from time to time as the original thickness
is reduced;