London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Giles (Camden) 1857
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]
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| Water. | Date of taking. | Height of site of Well, above ordnance datum. | Depth of Well. | Depth of Water in Well, August, 1857. | Hardness. | Solid Impurities.—Grains per Gallon. | Chemical. | Microscopical, | Presumed stratum reached by the well, and remarks. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporary | Permanent | Total. | Inorganic. | Organic. | Total. | ||||||||
| Russell Square Artesian Well, N.W. side. (2 analyses.) | Nov. 2, 1857. | 83.2 feet | 3.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 31.14 | 1.06 | 32.20 | No nitric acid or metallic salt. | Perfectly limpid, with a small amount of silex, and a few accidental fibres of cotton. No animal life, though water stood in warm room 24 hours. | Chalk. Water very bright. | ||
| Bloomsbury Market (2 analyses.) | Nov. 18, 1857 | 84.0 feet | 30 feet | 18.9 | 14.5 | 11.7 | 26.2 | 40.88 | 2.72 | 43.60 | Some amount of nitric acid, and distinct traces of iron. | Teeming with animal life. Para-mæcia, oxytricha, acineta, vorticella and monads with amæbæ, confervœ and sporules, and filaments of fungi, decaying vegetable matters, dirt, and silex. | London clay. Water furnished from the surface gravel. Water clear. |
| At 75, Gower Street | Nov. 1, 1857 | 90.5 feet | shallow | 28.4 | 23.5 | 51.9 | — | 93.76 | Large amount of nitrates, iron in some quantity. | Surface gravel. Water very bright. | |||
| †Broad Street, corner of Endell Street. (2 analyses.) | Nov. 11, 1857 | 79.2 feet | 28 feet | 1.ft. 1.in. | 20.6 | 26.2 | 46.8 | 89.68 | 4.60 | 94.28 | Enormous amount of nitric acid, shown even in unconcentrated water Iron in some quantity | Paramæcia & amphileptus, vorticella, particles of decayed vegetable fibre, with penecillium adherent, sporules of protococcus pluvialis, much grit & dirt | Surface gravel. Water slightly opalescent. |
| Pump in Denmark Street, near St. Giles Church: first sample drawn. | Feb. 25. 1858 | 85 feet. | 27 feet. | 5.2 feet. | 27.9 | 31.0 | 58.9 | 124.60 | 8.36 | 132.96 | Chlorides and nitrates abundant. Iron in some quantity. | Large quantity of impurities, decayed vegetable matters, sporules of fungi, filamentous confervæ, monads, and silex. | Lowest stratum presumed to be in gravel. A good deal of mechanical impurity. |
| Same Pump: sample taken after working Pump for some time. | Feb. 25. 1858 | ” | ” | ” | 30.5 | 33.25 | 63.75 | 141.28 | 9.72 | 151.00 | Carbonate and sulphate of lime are the chief earthy salts. | More impurities. Decayed vegetable fibre, confervœ, sporules of fungi in large proportion, monads and silex. | Dirtier and yellower than preceding. |
*Pump is locked up, and a Street Orderly has the key. Water, for watering streets, had been taken a few hours before the samples examined were drawn.
Wells in Bedford Square, Charlotte Street, Russell Square (East side), Great Wild Street, and Denmark Street, afforded no water in November, 1857.
† On opening Broad Street Well, in February, 1858, there were found 15 feet of water, which was of a high temperature (about 70o Fahr.) It was very dirty on the surface,
and swarming with animalculœ, visible at a glance.