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for from pure. This portion of the river still serves as a sower for
a well manured country, studded with a number of towns whoso
population is largo and continually increasing. Unless these sources
of impurity are entirely diverted, notwithstanding tho extensive
drainage of the Metropolis, the water supplied to London will go on
deteriorating till it again reaches its former rate of adulteration.
Under tho most favorable conditions it is questionable whether water
supplied from the Thames can ever be obtained in a state of purity
sufficient for the preservation of health. At present, however, it is
pure compared with what it was formerly, and it is desirable that
the Legislature should interfere to prevent the Thames being poisoned
nearer its source. The inhabitants of tho Metropolis aro now
spending enormous sums of money in diverting their drainage from
the river, and it is not unreasonable to expect other communities
to adopt some efficient, and less injurious, means for disposing
of theirs.
It is doubtless in tho recollection of tho Board that I have
frequently directed attention to the importance of a continuous and
plentiful supply of water. Irrespective of tho striking facts which
have been elicited by investigations on the subject of Cholera, there
is scarcely a disease to which tho human frame is liable which is
independent of tho preventive, purifying, cleansing, and curative
power of water. In consequence of tho representations of this and
other District Boards we have now a daily supply. In many of the
poorer districts however there arc no proper cisterns nor adequate
accommodation for its preservation, even for tho day; and what is
now required is a continuous, instead of an intermittent, supply.
Whatever difficulty there may be in the way of the accomplishment
of this object is of small moment compared with the preservation of
life and health. It is to be feared that, in most cases, receptacles
for water are seldom cleansed, and the impurities of months arc
permitted to remain to adulterate every fresh supply. Your officers
have endeavoured, as far as possible, to remedy these evils; and it
will not be out of place, through the medium of this Report, to warn
the inhabitants generally, and especially those whose position
renders them less liable to the visits of the Inspector than tho
poorer classes, of the' important and necessary duty of frequently
cleansing their cisterns, and thus as far as possible preserving their
water pure.
Another evil to which I have adverted in former Reports is the
overcrowding of the dwellings of the poor. While this continues
Epidemic Disease will generate and spread; and it is certain that
the increased mortality from Whooping Cough is chiefly due to this
cause. The numerous improvements which continue to be made in
and about the heart of London have so increased the value of house
property that this result has been almost inevitable. Without in
any measure desiring to question, either the wisdom or sincerity of