172 Professor G. V. Poore [April 24, 



head per diem in tlae matter of water have gradually increased to 

 something like forty gallons, which many experts consider to be none 

 too much. In London the air is so foul that rain-water is valueless 

 for domestic use, and the water of the surface wells is too poisonous 

 to drink, because we have neglected what I believe to be the most 

 important of the principles of sanitation, viz. the keeping of organic 

 refuse, whether solid or liquid, on the surface. The humus is the 

 most perfect purifier and the best of filters, in virtue of its physical 

 conditions and the life that is in it. We deliberately take our filth 

 to the under side of the filter, and then complain because our surface 

 wells are foul. The Water Companies are masters of the situation. 

 Water is not paid for, as a rule, in proportion to the quantity used, 

 because Parliament in its wisdom has decided that thriftiness in the 

 use of water is wicked. The grossly overburdened ratepayer is now 

 pricking up his ears to listen to the j^rattle about Welsh water 

 schemes at a cost of 38,000,U00Z., and is congratulating himself that 

 he is only a leaseholder, and that his bondage is terminable in seven, 

 fourteen or twenty-one years at most. Water carriage, in which the 

 carrier is some sixty times more heavy and twenty times more bulky 

 than the thing to be carried, is economically ridiculous (except in 

 places where nature has provided enormous quantities of water), and 

 involves every place where it is tried in ruinous debt. Let us take 

 an illustration. 



A suburban district having 27,000 persons on 7000 acres of land, 

 or a population of less than four to the acre, mainly engaged in market 

 gardening, has in the last ten years borrowed 106,442/. for sewerage 

 works. The only visible result to the inhabitants is that even coun- 

 try roads, with houses at ^-mile or J-mile intervals, have been dotted 

 with foul smelling manholes. 



In 1894-5 the sum of 18,534Z. 14s. 1^. was raised from rates, and 

 of this there was spent 6518/. 13s. lOd. for interest and reiDayment of 

 sewerage loans, and 2542Z. 3s. llfZ. for current expenses in connection 

 with sewage. If to this be added one-third of the establishment 

 charges (say 700Z.), we reach a total of 9860Z., or more than half the 

 sum received from rates. 



The provision and maintenance of all the patent domestic gim- 

 cracks which water carriage involves, together with the necessarily 

 increased bills for water paid by the householder, would probably 

 double that sum, and we shall not be far wrong in saying that these 

 27,000 persons are spending 20,000Z. a year for the purpose of 

 throwing their capital into the Thames. 



This doubling of rates has most seriously crippled the chief 

 industry of the district, and the market gardeners feel severely the 

 heavy extra charges which they are called upon to pay. These 

 gentlemen by putting much of the offal of great towns to its proper 

 use, and converting it into food and wages for the poor, are doing a 

 great work, but they are in a fair way to be ruined by the silly reck- 

 lessness of our local governors. 



