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31
were destroyed by the Broad Street pump, that I
was made aware how largely the surface well
waters of London are impregnated with sewage
and other objectionable matters. It was then that
I felt it to be a public duty to recommend you to
close your pumps for drinking purposes, and
obtained the sanction of thirty-four medical officers
of health in the metropolis to that recommendation.
The letters which I received from those gentlemen
were published in my last Report, and after having
been republished by the Vestry of Marylebone,
they have formed the most convincing evidence of
the necessity of a purer water supply in the streets
of London, and have been extensively circulated in
the publications of the Public Drinking Fountains
Association. Although, after the adoption of my
recommendation, you did not think it advisable to
continue the closing the pumps, yet the fact of their
contamination has become so generally known that
comparatively little use is now made of them for
drinking purposes. I have continued to make
observations upon the surface well waters from time
to time, and can report no amendment. Their
impurity is habitual and constant, and I do not
think that any means can be adopted for making
them more pure. The fact is, the water supplied
by the water companies at present is the purest,
and if this is further submitted to a process of
filtration before being supplied to the public, as is
proposed by the Drinking Fountains Association,
I do not think any harm can arise from the