538 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



than ten degrees of hardness have a mortality of four per 

 thousand less than those whose inhabitants use softer water. 

 This assertion, so contrary to the usual theory in the matter, 

 is, as might be expected, sharply contested by other sanita- 

 rians, and the final result of the controversy will be looked 

 for with much interest by the general public. 6 A^March 

 5,303. 



HARD WATER VerSllS SOFT. 



Dr. Letheby, at a recent meeting of the medical officers of 

 health of Great Britain, took occasion to renew his statement, 

 already referred to in our pages, of the superiority, in a san- 

 itary point of view, of a hard-water supply to towns over 

 that of soft water. Basing his arguments first upon physio- 

 logical considerations, he maintained that the earthy matters 

 in the hard waters were essential for the construction of the 

 osseous tissues, and that they supplied much of the calcare- 

 ous salts necessary for the nutrition of the frame, and that, 

 by repudiating their use, we should be throwing away one 

 provision of nature for this purpose. No one could say that 

 a hard water was not far more agreeable to drink than a soft 

 water. He maintained, in the second place, that the finest 

 specimens of the English race were to be found in regions 

 where the waters were hard, from flowing out of, or over 

 calcareous strata. The same was the case with cattle and 

 horses ; witness those reared in such counties as Durham and 

 Leicester, and the horses of Flanders, while the Shetlands 

 only produced a race 'of ponies. But his principal argument 

 was that, on classifying the towns of England, so far as their 

 water-supply was known, according to the degrees of hard- 

 ness of the waters, the average of the death-rate was least 

 in those towns supplied with hard water, and increased as 

 the waters became softer and softer, until it was highest in 

 those where the water supplied was most soft. These state- 

 ments, however, were met with much vigor by several speak- 

 ers, among the most eminent of whom was Mr.Wanklyn, who 

 endeavored to show that the deductions of Dr. Letheby were 

 based upon incorrect premises, and that the case was very 

 far from being proved. 20 A, May 27, G05. 



