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politan and suburban lines. Cisterns may be seen without lids and with portions of
rotten lids floating in the water, full of rank and decaying vegetation, and other most
objectionable substances, such as old rags and paper, and on closer examination the
contents would show more or less organic deposit, and under the microscope would be
found to abound in infusorial life. All cisterns should, therefore, be properly covered
and be frequently cleaned out, and every care should be taken to prevent the contamination
of the domestic supply after delivery. Now, as heretofore, it appears to be the rule
in building a certain class of houses to place the cistern over the water-closet with an
untrapped waste-pipe communicating with the drains. These cisterns are often open and
regularly receive the drippings from the roofs and gutters; they are, moreover, in close
proximity to the dust-bins and other deposits of filth and garbage, while children amuse
themselves by throwing all sorts of dirty rubbish into the water, including dead puppies
and kittens, with an occasional cat. These are facts known by personal observation.
The purest and best filtered water in England would be poisoned by such a system of
storage.
The Public Health Act of 1875, section 70, gives power to any local authority, in case
of complaint, to inspect and remedy such evils, but, probably, the only remedy for this
state of affairs will be found in the establishment of the constant supply system and the
consequent total abolition of these unfit receptacles; meanwhile, and until the system of
constant supply is completed, the owners and occupiers of houses are surely very wrong in
permitting such a condition of things to exist. In the better class of houses and in many
public buildings the cleansing of cisterns and tanks is frequently neglected for months,
and, in some cases, years are permitted to pass "without any examination or cleansing
taking place.
In courts and alleys several of the Water Companies are already giving constant supply
by means of stand-pipes, provided, in most cases, with self-closing taps, and in the
districts of those Companies which are extending the constant supply a marked improvement
has taken place in the quality of the water consumed by the small householder,
which thus reaches the house in the same condition as it leaves the Company's mains.
In these monthly reports attention is periodically drawn to the necessity which exists
for the regular cleansing of cisterns, and also to the fact that the contamination of water
from the gases generated by sewage is of far more frequent occurrence than is generally
understood. Waste-pipes from cisterns are still to be found in direct communication
with the sewers, and the gases thus flow back into the cisterns and become absorbed by
the water. To prevent this the overflow-pipe should be brought outside the house and
the end left exposed to the air instead of being carried into the drain, as is often the case.
By the adoption of this plan the poisonous effluvia and gases from the drains will be got
rid of; these would otherwise ascend through the pipe and not only be partly absorbed by
the water in the cistern, but be mixed with the air in the houses, thereby becoming a
cause of danger and disease.
A large number of houses in this parish were found to have their drinking
water cisterns badly placed, often over, sometimes actually inside, the
water closet, and, in many instances, supplying the water to the soil pan.
Where this state of things was found to exist, notice was served upon
the owners to provide a sufficient water supply for domestic purposes
direct from the Company's main, and to discontinue the supply from the
cistern over the water closet, except for flushing purposes.