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14
Both these companies supply water upon the intermittent
principle, necessitating the use of cisterns to store the water.
Section 67, of the Metropolis Management Act, 1862, enacts
that a sufficient supply of water (not exceeding 30 gallons each
person) shall be afforded to every house, and that if the water
supply is not sufficient for the number of persons residing in
the house (being more than one single family), proceedings
may be taken as for overcrowding.
Section 70 of the same Act also empowers any District
Board to erect drinking fountains; and section 116 ot the
original Act empowers District Boards to erect pumps for the
gratuitous supply of water to the inhabitants.
Examined at almost any season of the year the cisterns
attached to many of the poorer class of houses contain water
which is unfit for drinking. The cistern is placed over the
water-closet. In many instances there is no cover, or the lid
is removed, and the water is exposed to the sun's rays.
The cistern is placed over the water-closet with (as I have
seen sometimes the case) an untrapped waste pipe blowing
sewer gas over the surface of the water.
On the surface of the water may be seen green scum, the
sides of the cistern covered with slime, and the bottom of the
cistern loaded with mud, consisting of earthy and decomposing
organic matter, and containing an abundant supply of
dead and living animalcules, and in many cases no information
can be obtained of their having been cleansed.
Now, the connection between tainted water and cholera
was fully established during the last epidemic; but although,
except in epidemic times, we are not to look for such fatal
results as then occurred; still, poisons of this kind contained
in water are introduced into the system in such a subtle form,
and in a condition which renders them so easily absorbed into
the body, and in such an unobserved manner, that people are
rendered ailing and miserable, and fit for the reception of any
disorder; and it becomes an important duty to endeavour to
get a supply as pure as possible.
The only way in which to secure this effectually is by
having a constant supply afforded without cisterns and with
such apparatus (a spring tap would probably suffice), as would
tend to prevent waste. This would not only improve the
health but the morals of the people, as a supply of impure
water tends to disgust the poorer class of people, and induces
them to resort to less disagreeable beverages.
Drinking fountains in various parts of the district,