View report page

18
representative of that Board, addressing the magistrates
on the licensing-day, remarked that the slaughter-houses
in Paddington were in a better sanitary condition than
those in any other part of the Metropolis. In one case
I deemed it necessary to oppose the application for a
license, and it was accordingly refused.
WATER.
The parish is supplied with water by the Grand
Junction and West Middlesex Companies, chiefly by
the former: and they in turn draw their supplies from
the Thames, as do the Chelsea, Southwark, and Lambeth
Companies. Of the five Companies named, Dr. Frankland
points out that the West Middlesex delivers the
best water, and that during the past seven years he has
on no occasion been able to discover from microscopic
examinations any living organisms in it. The same
cannot be said of the water from the Grand Junction
Company, more particularly of that supplied during
the year under review. He remarks, that the subsidence
and filtration plant of the four Companies other
than the Middlesex is altogether inadequate to the
work required of it. He further points out, that the
water of the Thames at its source is as free from pollution
as the deep well water of the Kent Company,
which for purposes of comparison he takes as the
standard; but that in its downward course it becomes
largely contaminated by the sewage of towns and the
washings of cultivated land, especially during the winter
months; and that, notwithstanding the greater care
exercised now than formerly by most of the Companies,
its deterioration, though subject to fluctuations, does