106 J. HOPKINSOK RELATIVE ADVANTAGES 



higher in towns supplied with soft water than it is in towns 

 supplied with hard water. For instance, in his evidence before 

 the recent Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Water Supply, 

 Mr. Thomas Hawksley put in a table showing a death-rate for the 

 ten years 1882-91 nearly 3 °/g higher in thirteen towns supplied 

 with soft water than in fifteen towns supplied with hard water; 

 but no one would consider that the death-rate of Preston (27'3 per 

 1000) and of Manchester (27-2) is higher than that of Derby (17-9) 

 and of Brighton (17'7) because the former towns are supplied with 

 soft water and the latter with hard water. On the other hand, 

 Newcastle, with a death-rate of 24' 1 per 1000, is supplied with 

 hard water; Bradford, with a death-rate of only 19-5, with soft 

 water. It is just as reasonable to infer that the higher death-rate 

 of Newcastle is due to the hard water with which it is supplied. 

 (See Table III, p. 114.) Again, in the 'Sixth Eeport of the 

 Rivers Pollution Commission' (pp. 196-199) are tables which show 

 that the average death-rate in a number of seaport towns and 

 inland non-manufacturing towns supplied with moderately hard 

 water is higher than it is in such towns supplied with either hard 

 water or soft water. Surely this is a reductio ad alsurdum, for if 

 the death-rate in these towns depends upon the water with which 

 they are supplied, we should drink either very soft or very hard 

 water, and carefully avoid a water which is only moderately hard ! 



It is possible that there may be an indirect connection between 

 the death-rate of a town and its water-supply in this way. Other 

 things being equal, the healthiest towns will be those which are 

 situated on permeable formations, such as Watford and St. Albans, 

 owing to the dry subsoil and good drainage resulting from their 

 location. Not only is the ground drier on such formations than it 

 is on impermeable formations, but the air is also, which is of even 

 more importance for health, for it tends to a comparative absence 

 of fogs, and therefore to a clearer and more healthy atmosphere. 

 But it is just such towns which are supplied with hard water, for 

 it is accessible underground, and if obtained from neighbouring 

 rivers it is almost equally hard, for they, on siich formations, 

 are chiefly fed from springs. Towns on impervious formations 

 must get their water from rivers near, and they are fed fi'om 

 surface-waters which usually are soft ; or they must procure it 

 from a long distance, and in that case the water is always soft, 

 for no town has ever yet sought or obtained a hard-water supply 

 from a long distance. A soft- water supply, again, encourages 

 manufactures by which the air is polluted. 



Experiments have recently been made which tend to prove that 

 the death-rate in our towns is directly dependent upon the degree 

 of purity of the air ; that the purity of the air and the amount 

 of light are directly interdependent ; and that by merely deter- 

 mining the amount of sul])hur-conipouu(ls in the air we may form 

 a very good idea of its purity, of the amount of light which passes 

 through it, and of the healthiness of a town or of different parts 

 of a large city, such as London or Manchester. These and other 



