ON THE SUPPLY OP WrATEB TO TOWNS. 63 



sprung into existence or increased in size, — outstripping all preparation or 

 arrangement for the physical comfort and well-being of their inhabitants, — 

 the deterioration of the dwellings of many of the older towns and the closer 

 packing of the labouring classes for want of proper house accommodation, 

 have all contributed to enhance the evils attendant upon a deficient supply 

 of water and imperfect drainage. 



The spread of manufactures and the valuable commercial purposes to 

 which the waters of the country have been applied, have led to the deteriora- 

 tion of most of the streams to which the inhabitants formerly resorted for the 

 supply of their domestic wants, and suitable natural supplies of water have 

 now become either wholly deficient or lamentably inadequate to meet the 

 demands of health and comfort. Systenjs of artificial supply have to be 

 adopted, and in many cases these are attended with so much ditficulty and 

 expense, that every effort to inculcate right principles of supply, and to 

 afford accurate information for the government of those engaged in carrying 

 out works of so much value to the community, is entitled to attention and 

 respect. 



I have had the honour of being requested to prepare a Report on the pre- 

 sent state of our knowledge on this subject, but the question is one which in 

 its ramifications embraces so many points, that I shall not attempt, on the 

 present occasion, to do more than draw attention to the different modes of 

 supply which have been successfully adopted, and to give, as far as I am 

 able, such examples or such information as may serve to illustrate general 

 principles, without attempting to enter minutely into mechanical or prac- 

 tical details. 



The supply of water to towns on a large scale appears to have attracted 

 very little attention in Great Britain till a comparatively recent period. The 

 general hilly nature of the country, its geological character, and the abun- 

 dant and tolerably uniform fall of rain, have contributed to an almost uni- 

 versal diffusion of springs or streams, which, so long as they remained pure, 

 supplied all the wants of the inhabitants, then thinly and widely spread, or 

 gathered together into towns of only very moderate dimensions. 



But as population has increased and manufactures have extended, as 

 towns have become larger, and streams originally pure have become foul, 

 the subject has of necessity forced itself upon the notice of the public and 

 excited the attention it deserves. Works are now contemplated and carried 

 into effect which rival the greatest undertakings of the ancients and the Ro- 

 mans, and not in this country only, but in America and on the continent of 

 Europe the water-works of modern times are amongst the largest, the 

 boldest and the most successful productions of the age. Cities and towns 

 are now almost universally supplied with an unlimited quantity of water, 

 conducted into the interior of the houses, supplying in the most perfect and 

 convenient manner every domestic want. Protection against fire is secured 

 by arrangements specially adapted for that purpose, by which in many places 

 the simple pressure of the water is made to perform, and with much greater 

 effect, the duty formerly supplied by the mechanical agency of the fire- 

 engine. Streets are watered, and sewers are cleansed with little or no addi- 

 tional expense, and the general sanitary condition of our thickly-peopled 

 I districts is materially improved. 



! The general mode in which towns in this country were formerly supplied 



] with water by artificial means still exists in some places, and is common in 



continental towns. It appears to be the same also which, to a great extent, 



was adopted by the ancients, and carried out on the grandest scale by the 



Romans in the height of their prosperity. It consists in collecting springs at 



