25§ Supply of Water to the Metropolis. 



tation of his exclamation, and to express his sincere wishes for the 

 success of, what he is kind enough to call, my " public- spirited 

 exertions." 



We have transcribed this "Scena" between Messrs. Aber- 

 nethy and Wright, inasmuch as the latter gentleman has placed 

 it first upon his medical evidence, and has taken from it the 

 motto of his pamphlet. The impression that it leaves upon us 

 is, that if there be such a thing as " common sense," there is 

 also such a thing as nonsense, and that Mr. Wright is wrong in 

 publishing such rhodomontade. 



Now for the rest of the medical opinions. Dr. William 

 Lambe says, " the water must be unwholesome;" but Dr. Wil- 

 son Philip more circumspectly observes, that *' good water is 

 essential to health." Mr. Thomas and Dr. Hooper represent 

 the use of the Grand Junction water as prejudicial to health, 

 and the latter, especially, complains of the live insects in which 

 it abounds ; and Mr. Brodie conceives it to be unwholesome, 

 and altogether unfit for culinary purposes. 



Dr. Paris says that the water in question is extremely im- 

 pure and unwholesome, and that he cannot find terms expres- 

 sive of the awful effects it may be likely to produce upon the 

 health, and even lives of the inhabitants of the Metropolis. 



Mr. Keate is yet more decided : he says the water is so 

 filthy and impure, as to be unfit for the breakfast table, or for 

 culinary purposes ; and that it adds so much to the other im- 

 pure and unwholesome constituents of bread, as to render every 

 meal injurious to the health of thousands. He adds, *' by the 

 aid of filtering machines, and a steam kitchen, I endeavour to 

 avert from my family the mischiefs and dangers which I should 

 otherwise apprehend from the use of the sad compound which 

 is laid into my house." 



Doctors Turner, Hume, Macmichael, Holland, Bree, and 

 Johnson, close this formidable catalogue with evidence couched 

 in nearly similar terms to that above given ; but Sir H. Hal- 

 ford is somewhat more circumspect : the following is his reply 

 to Mr. Wright : — 



" Curzon Street, March 1, 1827. 

 ** Sir, 



" I have been disgusted, for some time past, by the filthy fluid 

 which has been served to my house by the Grand Junction Water 



