460 , The Water Companies : [MAY, 



and several other eminent, scientific persons, were stated by them to be 

 in a state " deleterious to health," &c. It might be doubted, perhaps, 

 if the evidence stopped here, whether, in the specimens thus presented 

 by a party so immediately concerned, the Water Company had quite fair 

 play : but the letters of at least a dozen eminent medical men are pub- 

 lished also, bearing testimony to their own personal experience and know- 

 ledge upon the point. 



Dr. Hooper, the author of the " Medical Dictionary," says " 1 have 

 .been aware of the very impure nature of the water supplied by the Grand 

 Junction Company ever since it came to my house. At one time it was 

 not only filthy v& appearance, but had an unwholesome smell." 



Mr. Brodie, the surgeon, of Saville-row, says " The water which you 

 have shewn me corresponds in appearance with that which is supplied to 

 my own house, and is manifestly very impure." 



Dr. Paris, the writer on " Diet," says " The water with which I am 

 supplied is extremely impure and unwholesome." 



Mr. Keate, of Albemarle-street, speaks from his own experience, and 

 in the vein even of " King Cambyses," upon the subject. He holds all 

 " Thames water" unfit for domestic purposes until it has undergone a 

 process somewhat analogous to fermentation." 



Sir Henry Halford, Dr. Hume, Dr. Turner, Dr. Mac Michael, and 

 several other medical men describe the Grand Junction water, "furnished 

 to their own houses," as of " extremely impure and offensive quality." 

 And Dr. James Johnson adds, that he " has always looked upon the water 

 used in London," and " taken up from the Thames near the metropolis," 

 as " disgusting to the imagination and deleterious to health." 



It will be supposed, of course, that the opinions of the " seven thou- 

 sand" householders whom the Grand Junction Company supplies, have 

 not been generally so strong as those of the parties above quoted : if they 

 had been, no doubt the nuisance would have been abated long ago. The 

 fact is, that the extremely foul supply complained of has been only occa- 

 sional, and then, generally, partial. But, independent of this peremptory 

 and intolerable nuisance, the ordinary character of the Grand Junction 

 water is by no means so good as it should be ; and notwithstanding the 

 resoluteness with which the company refuses to ascribe this fault to the 

 position of its Dolphin, we are ourselves perfectly convinced that it is to 

 that circumstance (probably to that only) that it is owing. In fact, the 

 company seems to us to have acted ill in resisting this, impression so obsti- 

 nately as it has done. If the foulness of the water which it supplies be 

 not owing to the position of its Dolphin, to what cause is it owing ? the 

 company, in its " letter," has not informed us of that fact. If the com- 

 pany's agents understand their trade, they ought to be aware what is the 

 cause of the evil ; and, being aware of that cause, it was their duty long 

 since to have removed it. 



The et Dolphin" is the name given by the water companies of London 

 to a small wooden erection something like a martello tower which each 

 company places in the river, to inclose and indicate the source from which, 

 by means of a steam-engine on shore, their supply of water is obtained. 

 Mr. Wright, in his pamphlet, has given a drawing of the situation of the 

 Dolphin of the Grand Junction Company, the accuracy of which has been 

 strongly denied in a letter from Mr. Coe, the company's secretary : we 

 have no hesitation in saying, however, that from an actual inspection of 

 the place Mr. Wright's drawing appears to us to be a perfectly fair one. 



