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by virtue of the 8th section of three Metropolis Water Act, 1871, can, whenever
they are of opinion that there should be in any district a constant
supply, require the Company within the water limits in which such
district is situate, to give a constant supply in such district. The powers
however, given in this Act, do not appear to me to be sufficient to compel
the owner of any house to provide the same with an adequate supply of water.
In my opinion the only effectual way of obtaining such supply will be
by the insertion in a new Sanitary Act for the Metropolis of that portion of
the 258th clause in the Public Health and Local Government Bill relating
to nuisances, which is, as follows: "Any inhabited house without an ade''quate
supply of wholesome water or access to an adequate supply within
" a reasonable distance " shall be deemed a nuisance.
Public Pumps in the District.
I have the satisfaction of reporting that all the public pumps in the
District have now been removed, and, in some instances, the surface wells have
been filled up. The last pump which remained was that near to Spitalfields
Church, and this has, within the last two weeks, by order of the Board, been
discontinued for use. An analysis of the water in the surface well which
supplied this pump was made by Dr. Letheby on the 27th December, 1871.
The result of Dr. Letheby's Analysis was that the water contains the altered
products of drainage matters, and that it is entirely unfit for domestic use.
The constituents of the water per gallon were ammonia in combination
0.410 grains. Ammonia obtainable from organic matter 0.015.
Carbonate of lime 28.82 grains.
Sulphate of lime 14.69 ,,
Sulphate of magnesia 0.42 ,,
Common salt 9.08 ,,
Nitrate of magnesia 3.19 ,,
Silica, alumina, and oxyde of iron 0.59 ,,
Organic matter 0.68 ,,
A similar result would be obtained from an analysis of nearly all the surface
wells in London.
I may here refer to the fact that in the year 1858 Dr. Lankester wrote
to every Medical Officer of Health in the Metropolitan Districts requesting
his opinion on the expediency of closing the street pumps in London, and
that thirty-three of the Medical Officers of Health replied in writing to the
effect that the use of London pump water was detrimental to health. Mr.
Simon, in his reply to Dr. Lankester, states that "pumps supplying such
"waters can never in London be otherwise than dangerous sources of supply.
"The porous soil from which they suck is that into which our cesspools and
"leaky drains discharge a great part of their fluids—sometimes even a part
"of their solid contents—and in which, till very recently, all our interments
"have taken place. It is a soil which consequently abounds with putrid
"and putrifiable matter. The waters derived from it invariably contain
"products of organic decomposition, more or less oxydised; and it is a mere
"chance, beyond the powers of water drinkers to measure or control, whether