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37
subjected their waters to efficient filtration, yet it
was only during the months of May, June, and July
that the water sent out by them was even in some
measure fit to drink. At no period during the past
twelve years has the water abstracted from the
Thames been so much polluted by organic matters
as during the past year. The water drawn from the
Lea was at times of very bad quality, that supplied
by the New River Company in the month of
February was unfit for drinking, as was that delivered
by the East London Company in the months of
August, September, and October.
The water of both the Thames and the Lea is
becoming year by year less suitable for domestic use.
The noxious organic matters in water are in suspension,
but their state of division is so fine as to render
their removal by artificial filtration through sand
impossible. On the other hand, the natural filtration
through great thicknesses of porous strata
which the Kent, Colne Valley, and Tottenham deep
well waters have undergone, renders artificial filtration
unnecessary. Of the deep well waters that
supplied by the Colne Valley Company was the best.
Paddington is supplied with water by the Grand
Junction and Middlesex Companies which draw
their supplies from the Thames, as do the Chelsea,