ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. yt 



on the Weald, remarks, p. 396, that on these Hastings Beds 

 there are 97 towns and villages, 79 of which have sandy sites. 

 Careful inspection of the " drift " maps of Essex discloses a 

 similar preference for sandy or gravelly sites in that county. 



From the Sixth [and final] Report of the Rivers Pollution Com- 

 mission, a Blue-Book published in 1874, "^^^ learn that even at 

 that date a very large number of our smaller towns were depen- 

 dent on pumps and shallow wells. Essex not being a manu- 

 facturing district, and most of the county being outside the 

 Thames Basin, five only of its towns and districts are mentioned 

 where the nature of the local water supply is given. Wanstead 

 was then supplied by the East London Company ; Leigh 

 depended upon shallow wells. Braintree Waterworks are men- 

 tioned, but not their date. At Harwich a borehole was then 

 being made in the Chalk. And at Sudbury the supply had been 

 from shallow wells in 1870, but the Corporation had just carried 

 out waterworks. In this Blue-Book the nature of the pipes in 

 local use is scarcely ever mentioned. 



But there is a short chapter " On the deterioration of potable 

 water by transmission through mains and service pipes." In 

 this chapter there is no mention of wooden pipes, the subjects 

 discussed being the " Injury to the potable waters by cast 

 iron mains " ; the " Injury to water by the improper conslruc- 

 tion of the joints of the mains"; and the " Injury to potable 

 waters by leaden service pipes." As regards the iron mains, the 

 injury to the water was caused by the rusting of the iron. We 

 learn, however, that by "a simple method having the sanction of 

 move than 10 years' experience this corrosion and its consequences 

 can be prevented." Details of the process are then given. 



As this Blue-Book was (as already remarked) published in 

 1874, ^^ becomes clear that in the first half of the last century 

 there were more solid objections to the use of iron mains than 

 those which were merely the result of prejudice. But the early 

 defects of iron pipes exercised an influence not in causing any 

 revival of wooden ones, but in retarding the formation of local 

 waterworks, and the disuse of pumps and shallow wells. 



In this Blue-book there is a chapter on " The Propagation of 

 Typhoid Fever by Water." Among the places mentioned as 

 having suffered from outbreaks of typhoid fev^er are Page Green, 

 south of Tottenham (1864 and 1865), Terling (1867), and 



