OF A SUPPLY OF SOFT WATEE. 121 



water for a populutiou at the same price, you would give the 

 preference largely to soft water, taking all the purposes into 

 consideration ? — At a very great ditference in price I would give 

 the preference to soft water, because the economy in manufactures 

 is so enormously great with soft water." 



{Questioned hy Mr. Harrison): "Supposing that you had a 

 choice between a hard water, such as is now supplied from the 

 basin of the Thames, supposing it to be free from the impurities 

 of sewage and otherwise, and a pure soft water, which should you 

 give the preference to, with regard to the question of drinking or 

 its use for culinary purposes ? — Undoubtedly to the soft water. In 

 all cases I strongly recommend towns not to accept hard water. 

 "W^'ithin the last three or four weeks I have been consulted with 

 regard to supporting a Bill in Parliament for a water-supply to 

 a town, and 1 refused to support it because it had a water with 

 20 degrees of hardness. 



"You do not consider that hardness is positively injurious to 

 health, do you? — In some cases hard water might prove injurious, 

 as in calculous affections and in dyspepsia ; still, generally a 

 tolerably hard water may be taken without much inconvenience ; 

 but water of 20 degrees of hardness is very hard water, and I 

 should much prefer even for purposes of health that it should 

 be softer. 



" And yon think that it [soft water] is decidedly conducive to 

 the health of a town, especially amongst the lower orders of the 

 people ? — I think it is of very great importance indeed." 



Another point worth a moment's consideration is the furring 

 of kettles and hot-water apparatus by hard water. The iron of an 

 ordinary kettle is usually less than 1-16 in. thick and is a good 

 conductor of heat, but the fur round the inside where hard water 

 is used is at least 1-8 in. thick, and this fur is a bad conductor 

 of heat. Consequently, when we want to boil water the heat has 

 to pass through three times the thickness of material, two-thirds of 

 which is a bad conductor. It has been found by experience that 

 a kettle boils in a little more than one-third the time when soft 

 water is used in place of hard water. Again, kitchen boilers 

 average about ^in. thick, the fur in this case is about i in. to 1 in. 

 thick, and the pipes being more or less furred, the proper circula- 

 tion of the hot water is interfered with. To obtain hot water the 

 fire must be very fierce, and the boiler then gets burnt away in 

 about one-half or one- quarter the time it otherwise would be. The 

 pipes also have to be repaired and cleaned, and there is the risk of 

 explosion. 



With reference to the matter of cooking, not having had much 

 personal experience of culinary operations, I think it will be 

 better if I let a cook speak for himself. Monsieur Soyer, the head 

 cook at the Reform Club, was examined before the lloyal Com- 

 mission on Water Supply, and gave some very interesting evidence. 

 I may mention, by the way, that after the completion of this Com- 

 mission, the chairman, the Duke of Richmond, was so convinced of 



VOL. VIII. — P.\.liT V. 9 



