The Commissioners on the pollution of rivers in their 20th March, 



1st Report, 1866 (the Thames), state : — . . TJp,,Qj.t of 



** That throughout the whole course of the river from ^^ l^oyal 



" Cricklade to the i^oint where the Metropolitan seivage ^^ ^j^ p^j, 



" commences , fouling of the water by sewage from cities, lutlon of 



" towns, villages, and single houses, generally prevails. Rivers, 



" The refuse from paper mills, tanneries, &c., passes into (the Thames). 



" the stream. There is no form of scavenging practised 



" for the surface water of the Thames, but carcases of Through its 



" animals float down the stream until wasted by corrup- ^^"^^ *^°"f ® 



J L 1^0 \vnGr6 JViG" 



" tion. The river water receives unchecked the whole tropolitan 



" of the ]3ollution, solid and fluid, of the district ; and sewagebegins 



" this same water, after it has been so polluted, is ab- the Thames 



" stracted, sand-filtered, and pumped into the Metropolis ^°"'^^ "y 

 a ^ J ^- 55 sewage, ecc. 



jor domestic uses. ^^ 



Having described in much detail, pages 15 to 17, the Towns of Up- 

 enormous pollution of the Upper Thames by the sewage ^^\^ f"^!^^th 

 of Oxford, Reading, Windsor, Eton, Richmond, and river by 

 Kingston, &c., &c., the report proceeds, page 17, thus : — 



" The river hasin <%t Hampton (the pumping station of -^z^^-ir-e^c 



" the water companies) comprises an area of about 3,676 



" square miles, and a population in 1861 of nearly 



" 900,000 jiersons. After a full allowance for retention 



" in cesspools, and for villages, &c., removed from the Sewage of 



" banks of the river and its tributaries, there is no doubt hundreds of 



" that the number of persons, whose sewage daily finds its of thousands 



" way into the water /"rom ivhich London draws its supply, gjj|jg j^g 



" amounts to hundreds of thousands, and this number is way into 



" destined greatly to increase by the growth of popula- the water 



" tion, and by the development of the sewerage svstem '^'1^^"^^ ^°."' 

 a 1 • . • 1 4.- J5 o J (Ion draws its 



now only m very partial operation. , 



Page 18. — Sir B. Brodie''s evidence is conclusive, that 



" there is no sufficient guarantee for its (the Thames' ^j^",-^- ?'^'°" 



" water) arriving at Hampton purged of injurious taint. f£th"Lon- 



" The London drinker of it may be drinking with it some ^^^ drinker 



" remnant of the filth of Oxford!'^ may drink 



" It is the general opinion of medical men, that what some rem- 



" causes the presence of organic matter in water to be "f "^ °l ^^^^ 



a ■ • 4. -i. ..•.. 1, . T. 11- filth of 



poisonous, IS not its quantity but quality, and this Oxford. 



" quality cannot as yet be detected by microscopic or 



" chemical analysis, and is indeed known only by its 



" occasionally noxious eflfects. The result seems to be. 



