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inhabitants of London were drinking water which had not been filtered, and
was cleared of impurities merely by decantation; and two of the Companies
derived their supply from the mains at a point within the Metropolitan area.
Between 1851 and 1856, extensive works were executed. The improvement in
the quality of the water during that period was marked; and considering the evidence
which was afforded of the fatal effects, of even two grains of impurity in
the gallon (one part in 35,000) during the last epidemic of Cholera,* there can be
no doubt that many—how many it is imposible to say, of the 20,000 lives that
have been saved in London since 1856, must have been purchased by the two
or three millions spent in the adoption of improved methods of storage and
filtration. For the maintenance of the standard of purity which has been
already attained, we are no doubt much indebted to the periodical analyses
published monthly by the Registrar General, by which any retrogression on the
part of the Companies is more effectually guarded against, than it would be by
the most vigilant inspection of their works. Notwithstanding all that engineering
skill can effect, the supply of London can never come up to the degree of
purity enjoyed by Glasgow and Manchester, for it is derived mainly from the
Thames, and even now, is contaminated by the drainage of several large towns.
It is to be feared that mechanical purification has done its best. Since 1856 no
material improvement has been observable, nor can it be hoped for, unless some
other source, unaffected by the cause above referred to, can be discovered.
But the question of purity relates to one only of the important requirements
which render an efficient system of water-supply indispensable to every large
town. Water is wanted not only to drink, but for cleansing and drainage. For
the latter purposes, quality is of little importance,—abundance is every thing.
Of water, that may be said with truth, which can be scarcely said of any other
commodity, that it is no less necessary to waste it, than to use it. For the
scouring of our sewers demands a much larger quantity of water than is
required for all the purposes of domestic economy, so that if we were limited
in our supply to the mere above-ground necessities, our under-ground channels
would become obstructed, and would shortly be converted into elongated cesspools.
About eighteen months ago, an urgent complaint was made to the
Sanitary Committee, by the inhabitants of one of our newly occupied districts,
of the foul smells which arose from the ventilating grates and other openings in
the line of the principal sewer. The sewer, which was perfectly constructed,
and had a sufficient inclination, was found to be foul. On enquiry into the
causes of this state of things, it appeared that although all of the houses were
provided with cisterns and apparatus for the proper regulation of the supply
of water, the quantity was so small, as often not to exceed an average of seven
gallons for each individual. But it has been found by careful experiment on the
large scale, that the deposit of solid matter cannot be prevented, even in the
sewers of the most approved form and construction, unless the material which
is hourly discharged into them be diluted with at least 400 times its bulk of
water, to ensure which it is necessary that a waste of water should enter the
sewers amounting to thirty or forty gallons daily for each person. This
quantity, large as it may appear, scarcely expresses the share due to each
individual of the hundred millions of gallons, daily supplied to the Metropolis.
It will be readily understood that of this aggregate consumption, that which
takes place for each individual in the houses of the wealthy, is many times
greater than the average, and that as a consequence, in the more populous
dwellings of the poor, the supply falls far short of the demand. And if experience
teaches that even a well-built sewer becomes obstructed under such
circumstances, the case of those districts may be imagined in which the evils of
a relatively inadequate supply of water are combined with those of a dilapidated
drainage, constructed after the unaccountable models of fifty years ago. These
considerations are sufficient to shew the importance and value of the clause
introduced into the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Act, at the
instance of the Vestry of Paddington, whereby the Vestries and District Boards
• See Annual Report for 1856, p. 18.