OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 65 



mitted to him by the Water Commissioners, in 1845, has given the re- 

 sults of some experiments upon the action of several waters on lead, 

 which conducted him to the general conclusions above expressed.* 

 Among those who have taken strong ground against leaden service- 

 pipes for the transmission of water may be mentioned Drs. Chilton 

 and Lee of New York, and Drs. Dana and Hayes of Lowell. 



" The occasion of the following research was the request by the 

 Board of Consulting Physicians of the city of Boston, in January of 

 1848, that a comparison of the action of Cochituate Lake, Jamaica 

 Pond, and Croton and Schuylkill River waters upon lead should be in- 

 stituted. Cochituate water was about to be introduced into Boston for 

 the supply of the city. Jamaica water has been employed in certain 

 sections of the city of Boston since the year 1795, and for the last twen- 

 ty years served through leaden pipes. Croton River water, since 1842, 

 has been supplied through iron mains and leaden service-pipes to the 

 citizens of New York, a city of 400,000 inhabitants. Schuylkill River 

 water, since the year 1815, has been supplied through iron mains and 

 leaden distribution-pipes to the inhabitants of Philadelphia, a city of 

 300,000 inhabitants. The inquiry that early presented itself to the 

 Board of Consulting Physicians was the following : — Will there he 

 greater liability to lead-disease from drinking Cochituate water, 

 served through iron mains and leaden pipes, than there is now from 

 drinking Fairmount or Croton waters similarly served, or Jamaica 

 water possibly less favorably served than Cochituate water loill he ? 



" To answer this question, Croton, Fairmount, Jamaica, and Cochit- 

 uate waters were provided with care, and the proposition made that 

 lead should be presented to them all under similar circumstances. It 

 was not proposed to introduce the absolute conditions of actual service 

 in a series of laboratory experiments. It was conceived that, when in 

 contact with lead, all the external circumstances being the same, the 

 differences in the action upon lead would be a kind of exponent of the 

 differences in constitution among the waters. A sufficiently extended 

 series of experiments, it was believed, would reveal all the expedients 

 to be resorted to in order to the fulfilment of the required conditions, 

 and would, if duly extended, furnish replies to the 'various inquiries in- 

 to which the main problem of the measure of safety or danger resolved 

 itself. 



• Boston Water-Corn. Report, App., 1845. 

 VOL. II. 9 



