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22
Sanitary Circumstances.
"negative results under conditions of experiment which have been
"shown to be successful in the case of artificially infected
"samples."
The water supply of the Metropolis was in the hands of eight
companies, whose powers and rights were regulated by their local
Acts, and by the Metropolis Water Acts of 1852 and 1871. In June
1904, they were superseded by the Metropolitan Water Board,
which consists of 66 members representing the County Councils of
London, Herts, Essex, Middlesex, Kent, the cities of London and
Westminster, the Thames Conservancy, the Lea Conservancy
Board and the Metropolitan Boroughs.
The Board controls the water supply not only in London, but
also over a large extra-metropolitan area, and neither the County
Council nor any other Local Authority of the Metropolis has any
direct power.
Besides the special Act or Acts, the supply is governed by
certain sections of the Public Health (London) Act, the Waterworks
Clauses Act 1847 and the Metropolis Water Acts 1852 and
1871. There are statutory obligations laid upon the Board so as to
ensure the delivery of wholesome water, and also provisions against
pollution by consumers and others. The Controlling Authority is
the Local Government Board, which causes the water supply by
the companies to be examined periodically, approves or disapproves
of new sources of supply, and enquires into complaints made to it
as to the quality or quantity of the water supplied for domestic
use.
A river wall is now in course of construction in order to
prevent the Thames overflowing its banks between the White Hart
Hotel and the Lonsdale Road, affecting chiefly the Terrace,
Barnes.