Supply of Water to the Metropolis. 255 



tedious purifications." The right way of proceeding in these 

 cases would have been, not to send a bottle of the water in 

 question to the first person that occurred, but to have requested 

 one or more respectable chemists to have examined the water 

 as coming directly from the mains of the Company, and to col- 

 lect and experiment upon it in their own way. We think, 

 therefore, that no weight whatever can be attached to the 

 above, or any analogous analysis ; nor are the opinions of the 

 medical men which follow of much more importance, for they 

 are but opinions after all, and those upon one side of the ques- 

 tion only, for we could easily obtain a similar number of 

 equally respectable certificates in favour of the water, as are 

 here so formidably arrayed against it : however, it is but fair 

 to let some of these gentlemen speak for themselves. 



Mr. Abernethy here stands forth in the foremost rank, to 

 whom our author addressed a letter, with a sample of the water, 

 informing him, that instead of pure water the Grand Junction 

 Company supplied a fluid loaded with all sorts of filth and im- 

 purities, drawn from within a few yards of the great common 

 sewer : he then proceeds to inquire whether such water is not 

 more fit to engender disease than to make soups and puddings. 

 Now for the answer : 



Scarcely had I put the above letter into Mr. Abernethy's hand, 

 when I unfortunately held up the specimen bottle, and asked him, 

 ** whether he thought such water could be wholesome/* Never 

 shall I forget the countenance of this eminent man at that moment ! 

 The very sight of the turbid fluid seemed to occasion a turmoil in 

 his stomach. He began pacing the room backward and forward, 

 and the only words I could extract from him were, " How can you 

 ask me such a question ? How can you ask me such a question ? 

 There is such a thing as Common Sense ! There is such a thing 

 as Common Sense !" 



Mr. Pope tells us, that 



" Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend. 

 And rise to faults true critics dare not mend — " 



and so may great professional men. There was a sort of honest 

 hrusquerie in Mr. Abernethy's conduct, that pleased me beyond 

 measure ; and I left his house, satisfied that I had not only esta- 

 blished my case, but supplied my intended publication with an 

 excellent motto. 



In a communication which I have since been favoured with from 

 Mr. Abernethy, he has had the goodness to confirm my interpre- 



