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living plants and animalculæ, and of nitric acid and other inorganic compounds, all of
which are presumably harmless; but it is also true, and this must never be forgotten,
that these processes of depuration have their limits, and that by a combination of circumstances,
over which there is no control, the water of the surface wells may become
impregnated with unchanged and poisonous sewage. It will be evident that such
impregnation will be most likely to occur where the water contains an abundance of
nitric acid, of organic matters, or of living organisms. These, though they may not of
themselves be injurious, indicate that a water in which they abound may readily
become deleterious.
The case is very widely different with the water obtained by boring through the
London clay. Beneath this are water-bearing strata, whose gathering ground is the pure
soil of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Filtered through twenty, thirty, or forty
miles of sand or chalk, this water gravitates beneath the thick bed of clay on which
London is situated. When a well and boring are made through this, the water,
seeking its own level, rises to the surface in a condition of most beautiful purity; clear,
sparkling, cool, without a trace of animal or vegetable life, it contrasts in the strongest
manner with the water of the surface wells before discussed—wells, whose chief praise
it is, that they swarm with living organisms and foreign salts, to a degree sufficient to
consume the offensive and noxious sewage matters of their water.
The following table of analyses of the waters of the district, exhibits the water
of the artesian well, in Russell Square, which is sunk into the chalk ; the water of
several wells sunk into the surface gravel; and the water of the New River Company,
under various circumstances. (See next page.)
The practical lessons taught by the foregoing considerations, and by the
analyses of these waters are : 1st—That other wells, such as that sunk in Russell
Square, are extremely desirable, their water being beyond comparison the best, not only
for drinking purposes, but for every domestic use.
Few things would conduce so much to the health and social improvement of
the district, as some public fountains, flowing with this pure fluid. This cost would
be considerable, but not more than most large brewers find it expedient to incur, and
the welfare of all the inhabitants of a district must be held to be a consideration far
superior to the interests of a single firm.
2ndly.—We may learn that the water of the public surface wells is not fit for
internal use; it is manifestly wrong to employ water which, even if ordinarily wholesome,
may be at any time made poisonous by accidents which can indeed be anticipated,
but hardly prevented ; such as the extra leakage from, or the disturbance of the
contents of a cesspool, the loosening of a brick in an adjoining drain, defects in gas-pipes,
even peculiarities in the seasons. At the best, the water contains salts and organic
matters, alive and dead, in such quantity as to make it a very questionable beverage; it
is allowed by everybody not to be good enough for horses. Of course, there has
been a wide-spread belief in the excellence of these waters for drinking, just as the
smell of a cesspool was thought to be healthy forty years ago; but no one of intelligence
can allow himself to be deceived by their clearness, or even by the pleasant briskness
they often present to the palate, in the face of the evidence, chemical, microscopical, and
geological, which has accumulated in reference lo them.