OF HABD AND SOFT WATER. 109 



of Glasgow : " The comparative value of the new soft supply over 

 the old hard supply has been a matter of discussion at the Glasgow 

 jMedieal Society, of which I was President for two years. It was 

 the unanimous opinion of the medical profession that great benefits 

 of a sanitary kind had followed in the substitution of the soft 

 water on the principle of constant supply. It has been observed 

 that since this change urinary diseases have become less frequent, 

 especially those attended by the deposition of gravel. So far 

 as [my] experience has gone, my own opinion is that dyspeptic 

 complaints have diminished in number." The Medical Society 

 also attributed diminution in the number of fever cases and 

 comparative immunity from cholera, in the one district of Glasgow 

 which was then supplied with soft water, to the same cause — the 

 substitution of a soft-water for a hard-water supply. This was 

 before the introduction of the Loch Katrine water to the whole of 

 Glasgow. (See the above ' Eeport,' p. 55.) 



To quote another instance. The hard water formerly supplied to 

 Liverpool has been credited with having the tendency to produce 

 visceral obstructions ; and Dr. Sutherland, a physician of that 

 city, found that such complaints vanished on his patients leaving 

 Livei-pool, and reappcai-ed immediately on their returning to it, but 

 the water Avhich did the mischief there was a hard selenitic water 

 from the Jfew Ked Sandstone. 



While the presence of bicarbonate of lime in water cannot, 

 I think, be proved to be a cause of such complaints as these, 

 dyspepsia can undoubtedly be traced to it, and 1 know persons who 

 cannot drink the hard water supplied to Watford without it having 

 a bad effect upon their digestive organs. It is my own impression 

 that, although I do not suffer in this way from di'inking the hard 

 chalk water of St. Albans, some of the beneficial effects which I 

 and others expeiience from a visit to a mountainous country such 

 as North Wales, are due to our drinking the soft water from the 

 hills, which I do largely and with much greater relish than the 

 hard water to which 1 am accustomed. We should not, however, 

 be too ready to rely upon our own tastes and feelings ; we are very 

 much the creatures of prejudice as well as of habit. The lower 

 animals are less so, and we cannot credit them with having un- 

 justifiable prejudices with regard to the water they drink. It is 

 well known that hard water is injurious to horses, making their 

 coats rough and rendering them liable to gripes, and they seem to 

 know it as well as we do, for they will not drink it if they can get 

 soft water. Dogs, also, will rather drink rain-water from a rut in 

 the road, even if slightly muddy, than the clearest hard water 

 which may be provided for them ; at least, this is a trait of my 

 own dog, and I have noticed it in others. I have been informed 

 that the same is the case with birds, and that fancy pigeons should 

 always have soft water provided for them. 



This part of my subject has already extended to too great a 

 length, and I will only add, in view of the possible objection 

 that I have not been quoting recent authorities, that the \ic\v 



