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20
Cholera, and are not the less worthy of our attention because
we are not now under the apprehension of another visitation
of that malignant epidemic.
Both of the Companies whose mains are now distributed
to this Parish have, since August 1855, drawn their supply of
water from a point on the Thames a quarter of a mile above
the village of Hampton. The water of both Companies is
now filtered on an efficient plan, besides considerable improvements
which have taken place in the mode of collection and
the general management of the supply. Since these have
been carried out, the chemical character of the water itself
has undergone a change for the better of the most marked
description. Thus, while the Grand Junction Company's
water contained in 1851 three grains in the gallon of organic
impurity, it now contains from one to one and a-half grains;
and in the quality supplied by the other Company, improvement
has been no less decisive.
It thus appears that in so far as concerns the quality of the
water distributed, there is at present little ground of complaint.
There are, however, serious evils connected with its
collection for household purposes in receptacles of various
kinds, which merit your attention. I have entered upon
chemical investigations relating to the alterations which water
undergoes when long retained in cisterns, the results of which
I shall be able, in the present year, to lay before the Sanitary
Committee. I may, however, here allude to one point, namely,
to the contamination of water by the escape of hurtful gaseous
exhalations, consequent on the proximity of the cistern in
which it is kept, to the water-closet. This is an evil which
relates almost entirely to the houses of the more wealthy
classes. The cisterns of large houses have often a capacity
which is out of proportion to the quantity of water required
for domestic purposes ; consequently, their contents are only
partially renewed each time the cistern is filled; so that the
effect of any contamination, such as the one above referred to,
even if it be inconsiderable in the first instance, increases by
accumulation.