Supply of Water to the Metropolis. 413 



We have also endeavoured to gain information from various 

 other sources respecting the state and purity of the Thames 

 water, and its general fitness for domestic use ; and from such 

 inquiries it appears proved to us, that the quality of the water 

 within certain limits, included in what may be called the London 

 District, has suffered a gradual deterioration within the last ten or 

 twelve years. We found this opinion upon the well-ascertained 

 fact of the disappearance of fish from those parts of the river, to 

 such an extent, as to have led to the almost entire destruction of 

 the fisherman's trade between Putney Bridge and Greenwich ; 

 and upon the circumstance that the eels imported from Holland, 

 can now with great difficulty be kept alive in those parts of the 

 Thames where they were formerly preserved in perfect health. 

 We also learn that the fishmongers in London find it impossible 

 to preserve live fish for any length of time in water taken from 

 the same district. 



The causes of these effects are, perhaps, principally to be traced to 

 the increase of certain manufactories, amongst which, those of coal 

 gas are the most prominent, polluting the river by their refuse j to 

 the constant passage of steam-boats, by which the mud is stirred up, 

 and to the peculiar nature of that mud within the above-mentioned 

 precincts. The very circumstance also of the great abundance 

 with which water is supplied to the houses and manufactories of 

 the metropolis appears to be essentially connected with the 

 augmented impurity of the river ; for where refuse animal and 

 vegetal)le matter of various descriptions used to be collected, and 

 from time to time removed for the purposes of manure, it is now 

 indiscriminately washed into the sewers, and conveyed into the 

 Thames : and the sewers themselves are rendered much cleaner 

 than formerly by the quantity of water which runs to waste, and 

 which, as already remarked, has rendered them less offensive, es- 

 pecially in those parts of the town where they used to be most liable 

 to stagnation and consequent putrescence. Thus it has been stated 

 to us that the water of the river is more polluted immediately after 

 heavy rains, which force down the contents of the sewers, than 

 after a continuance of dry weather, when its course is sluggish or 

 altogether arrested j and the results of experiments we directed 

 to be made on the subject fully establish this fact. The great 

 increase which has of late years taken place in the population of 

 London, and of its suburbs on every side, must also be attended 

 by a proportionate augmentation in the quantity of extraneous 

 matter carried down into the Thames. 



There are other circumstances aflfecting the fitness of the water, 

 as now taken from the river for the supply of the town, which, 

 though less general in their influence, should not be overlooked; 

 such as the position of the suction pipes of the engines belonging 

 to some of the companies in regard to the mouths of sewers, the 

 quantity of dead animals thrown into the river in and about 

 London, its contamination by the offal of slaughter-houses^ and 



APRIL— JULY, 1828. 2 E 



