NATURE 



165 



THURSDAY, JUNE 19, if 



THE LONDON WATER-SUPPLY 



The London Water-Supply ; its Past, Present, and Future. 



By G. Phillips Bevan, F.S.S. With a Map showing 



the Districts of the Water Companies. (London ; E. 



Stanford, 1884.) 

 'THE London water-supply is so important a question, 

 and at the same time one upon which there prevails 

 so much misapprehension, that the appearance of an im- 

 partial, candid, and, in the main, accurate treatise like the 

 one before us must be judged seasonable. A full discussion ; 

 indeed, of so many-sided and complicated a subject can- 

 not be expected within the compass of 112 pages. Nor is 

 there, perhaps, any man living who is qualified to give an 

 authoritative deliverance on all the considerations involved, 

 — on the one hand, medical, chemical, and engineering, and 

 on the other hand, financial, legal, ethical, and municipal, 

 if not actually political. These two main branches of the 

 inquiry should be kept substantially distinct. For it is at 

 least conceivable that a water-supply might be found 

 irreproachable in quality and ample in quantity, and yet 

 might be furnished on terms so iniquitous as to call for a 

 sweeping reform. Again, a contaminated water might be 

 dealt out in a manner which at least involved no injustice 

 or oppression. 



As a matter of course, we shall discuss Mr. Bevan's 

 pamphlet mainly from the sanitary point of view, though 

 we admit that as a whole it well merits the careful study 

 of the ratepayers of the metropolis. 



Our author begins with an account of the ancient supply 

 down to the reign of Charles II. This chaper, like history 

 generally, is mainly a record of errors and oversights. It 

 would seem that whilst as individuals we recommend fore- 

 thought and prudence, yet as a community we very 

 literally " take no thought for the morrow," and thus drift 

 into positions from which we can escape, if at all, only at 

 great cost. 



The second chapter deals with the modern supply. It 

 appears that as far back as 1821-28 there was general 

 dissatisfaction both with " the high-handed and arbitrary 

 character of the rates" and with the quality of the water 

 furnished. Cne company, we learn, took in its supply 

 from the Thames at the mouth of a main sewer, and served 

 out this liquid to its customers without any process of 

 purification. As a specimen of neglect on the part of 

 Government, we may mention that a Royal Commission 

 was appointed to examine the water-supply as far back as 

 1828. A Select Committee of the House of Commons was 

 still " considering " the report of the Commissioners just 

 six years afterwards, while the Select Committee of the 

 House of Lords took another six years over the matter, 

 and did not consider it until 1840. 



Even in those early days attention was drawn to " the 

 filthy and polluted state of the cisterns and butts into 

 which water is received." This nuisance is a necessary 

 consequence of the intermittent system of water-supply. 

 In addition comes the fact that the cistern is generally 

 placed where it is fully exposed to the sun in summer and 

 to the frost in winter. 



Vol. xxx.— No. 764 



We find next a history of the cholera epidemics, ther 

 bearing on the water-supply question, and the evidence 

 which they yielded as to the influence of sewage pollution. 

 This influence, as worked out by Mr. Simon, is most 

 striking. Among the population of 166,906 persons 

 supplied with a fairly good water by the Lambeth Com- 

 pany in 1854, the deaths from cholera were at the rate of 

 37 to 10,000 living. Among the 268,171 persons supplied 

 by the Southwark and Vauxhall Company with a polluted 

 water, the death-rate from cholera was 130 per 10,000. 

 Now, as the two companies at that time competed with 

 each other, their " mains branching within the same area, 

 often running parallel in the same streets," this case was a 

 truly crucial instance. The observations thus made proved 

 to be of no small value. The water companies introduced 

 a variety of improvements. The intakes were removed 

 further from sources of pollution, and more efficient 

 arrangements for filtration were adopted. In 1856 Pro- 

 fessors Hofmann aid Blyth were able to announce that 

 the organic matter in the water supplied was nearly one- 

 half less than it had been in 185 1. It is to be regretted, 

 however, that the lesson was over-learnt, and that fanciful 

 and exaggerated notions concerning " contamination " 

 became fashionable. The dogma — for it is not a demon- 

 strated truth — was put forward that all nitrates present in 

 subsoils and rocks result from the decomposition of 

 animal matter. Hence the presence in a water of such 

 salts was deemed a proof that sewage or kindred matters 

 had at some time gained access to the source in question. 

 To this subject, however, we shall have to return below. 



An important step has been the closing of the public 

 wells and pumps in and near London. The water of 

 these wells was not merely found to be grossly polluted, 

 but positive proof was obtained that those who drank it 

 suffered exceptionally from cholera. The popularity of 

 these wells may strike us as remarkable. But we must 

 remember that such water cost the consumer nothing. 

 In addition, as Mr. Bevan points out, " the cisterns of the 

 neighbouring houses were generally foul and the water 

 heated, while the well water came up fresh, cool, and 

 sparkling, from the quantity of carbonic acid contained 

 in it." 



Mention is made of the establishment in 1868 of a 

 system of inspection of the water supplied to the metro- 

 polis. It is not, however, generally known that all the 

 reports issued prior to the investigations undertaken by 

 Mr. Crookes and by Drs. Odling and Meymott Tidy have 

 been based on the analysis of " a single sample of each 

 company's water, taken on one day only in the course of 

 the month." It is plain that such an examination is not 

 alone " rather of a perfunctory nature," as Mr. Bevan says 

 was the case previous to 1S65, but positively misleading. 

 We must agree with Messrs. Crookes, Odling, and Tidy 

 that it is " quite impossible to judge fairly the purity or 

 otherwise of a month's supply by an odd sample taken at 

 random in the manner adopted." Hence we are by no 

 means satisfied that the monthly reports issued by Colonel 

 Sir Francis Bolton are of the "immense practical value'' 

 which Mr. Bevan seems to believe. 



The third chapter is devoted to the existing water com- 

 panies — their supplies or feeders, reservoirs, and filter- 

 beds ; the statistics of the districts supplied, and, above 

 all, their scale of charges. Into these questions, important 



