410 Report of the Commissioners on the 



and also respecting which a variety of representations had gone 

 forth to the public, we perceived that it would necessarily embrace 

 a multitude of considerations of a delicate and complicated nature. 

 We felt it to be our duty, therefore, to begin by dismissing from 

 our minds whatever previous impressions might have been received 

 from the reports and statements which had been circulated, and to 

 be guided in our judgment solely by the evidence we should be 

 enabled to obtain in the execution of our commission. 



In our remarks upon this evidence, we shall first confine our- 

 selves to the water of the River Thames. 



Assuming the supplies to be derived directly from the riveri and 

 to be subjected to no intermediate process tending to purification, 

 it is sufficiently obvious that the state of the weather will materi- 

 ally affect the purity of the water, which is sometimes compara- 

 tively clean and clear, and at others loaded with various matters 

 in mechanical suspension, rendering it more or less coloured and 

 turbid. In the latter state, when thrown into cisterns, and other 

 receptacles of houses, it is manifestly unfit for immediate use 3 

 but after being allowed to rest, it forms a certain quantity of de- 

 posite, and thus may become sufficiently clear for ordinary pur- 

 poses. This deposite, however, is the source of several evils ; it 

 renders the cisterns foul, and runs off into those pipes which 

 issue from or near the bottom of the reservoirs. By the agitation 

 which accompanies every fresh influx of water, this deposite is con- 

 stantly stirred up, and becomes a renewed source of contamination 

 to the whole mass -, and although chiefly consisting of earthy sub- 

 stances in a state of minute division, it is aptftlso to contain such 

 proportion of organic matters as will occasion a degree of putrefac- 

 tion when collected in any quantity, and especially in warm wea- 

 ther. Of this deposite, more or less is almost always collected, 

 especially where the service is direct from the river j and although 

 some of the companies have reservoirs of such magnitude as to 

 enable them to serve water already partially purified by deposi- 

 tion, the system is still very imperfect, and the water is frequently 

 supplied in a turbid state. In other cases, the companies' reser- 

 voirs, however eminently useful in cases of fire, become objec- 

 tionable in regard to the purity of the water, since the mud accu- 

 mulates in them, and also proportionately in the mains and branch 

 pipes. 



By far the greater number of complaints which have been 

 made to us with respect to the quality of the water have originated 

 in the cause just alluded to j and hence some of the companies 

 have attempted to get over the difficulty by suffering the water to 

 remain at rest for a sufficient time to become clear before the 

 public are supplied, and in this they have, in some instances, so 

 far succeeded as materially to improve their service. When, how- 

 ever, from land floods or other causes, the river is very thick, they 

 cannot allow due time for such subsidence ; and even when most 

 perfectly performed, the insects contained in the water, so far 

 from being got rid of, become, perhaps, even more numerous, 



