August 14, 1 



NA TURE 



377 



— a department which should be presided over, if not by a 

 Cabinet Minister, at all events by a member of the Government 

 who can be appealed to in Parliament." 



Mr. I. Mansergh, C.E., states that "altitude and geological 

 structure of a district on the two principal factors which deter- 

 mine what the source of water-supply must be in each district." 

 He divides source of supply into (a) aboveground, and [i) 

 underground. 1 he former he subdivides, into — I. Water taken 

 from heads of streams by pipes, just when it ceases to be under- 

 ground water, as in the case of Lancaster. 2. Water obtained 

 from natural lakes, as in the ca.e of Glasgow. 3. Water col- 

 lected from high lying moorland watershed areas, as at Man- 

 chester. 4. Water taken from a large river flowing past a town, 

 as the Thames and Lea, near London. His second cla^s (i) he 

 does not subdivide, and includes all waters taken from all classes 

 of stratification ; he appears to take twelve degrees of hard- 

 ness of Dr. Clark's scale as the maximum limit of safety 

 for health, and regards a pure soft supply as preferable to 

 a pure hard supply, using the word "pure" to mean 

 absence from organic impurity. Speaking of towns which 

 are compelled by position, and on the score of expense to 

 be content with a water-supply derived from an adjacent 

 river, he states that such sources " would be inadmissible but 

 for the great rehabilitating process which nature silently carries 

 on in a river, and to which chemists apply the term ' oxidation.' " 

 In this wonderful process the polluting organic matters which 

 the water contains are converted by the agency of oxygen into 

 harmless inorganic salts, and the water again becomes fit for the 

 use of man. He here refers to the burning controversy between 

 the two schools of opinion on this matter, which have at their 

 heads Dr. Frank land and Dr. Meymott Tidy respectively ; the 

 former admits that oxidation is effective in converting the most 

 vile contamination into a harmless condition, but does not admit 

 it destroys the organised germs, which he believes cause the 

 virulent zymotic diseases, and which, being indestructible, may 

 travel scores of miles in a running stream without being deprived 

 of their fatal potency. Dr. Tidy, on the other hand, denies the 

 existence of the germs, and affirms, after a ran of a few miles, a 

 river is fully oxygenated. Mr. Mansergh observes that, though 

 Dr. Frankland's opponents appear to have the facts in their 

 favour — as London, a city chiefly supplied from a polluted river, 

 being one of the healthiest cities in the world — yet the "germ" 

 theory is making steady advances under the investigations and 

 researches of competent men. 



Since the London water companies have come under the 

 official supervision of Sir Francis Bolton, large sums of money 

 have been spent in increasing the efficiency of the subsidence 

 tanks, by great'y augmenting their capacity, in fact, their 

 operations have converted them into sorage reservoirs; from 

 these the water is delivered into filter beds, the varieties in the 

 construction of which, adopted by the different companies, are 

 show n in the angle of the very interesting water pavilion erected 

 in the Health Exhibition, under the auspices of Sir Francis 

 Bolton, and which is full of interest to the student of the subject, 

 and is decorated with some very artistic representations of the 

 various waterworks on the banks of the Thames. 



Any scheme of new legislation, and construction of a new 

 department to carry out its provisions should, in the opinion of 

 the writer, be made to include underground water supplies, the 

 state of the law at the present time being exceedingly unsatis 

 factory, and the decisions of parliamentary committees being un- 

 certain and contradictory. The law places underground water 

 in the category of wild and free creatures, that he who can catch 

 can hold, and just as one landowner can shoot a hare on his own 

 property that has been bred on his neighbour's land, so can he 

 take, by sinking a well, the water that has been received on his 

 neighbour's property, notwithstanding his neighbour may be 

 wholly dependent upon it for water supply, and it may have been 

 used from time immemorial, and further than this, on the principle 

 "of doing what you like with your own," he may actually pour 

 poison down his own well, and destroy the value of the water in 

 the well on his neighbour's land without hindrance and without 

 compensation. Two of the essayists at the congress referred to the 

 recent judgment of Justice Pearson confirming this view. 



Considering the opinions expressed in the papers read at this 

 congress, and the statements made in the discussion upon them, 

 it appears to be generally believed by those who have made the 

 water question a special study, that the existing complex legisla- 

 tion, sanctioning various and often antagonistic authorilies in our 

 water-basin, is productive of the greatestharm to the community, 



aid can only be remedied by the constitution of an hydraulic de- 

 partment with absolute control over streams from thtir source to 

 their outfall ; that such department should at once make 

 systematic arrangements for taking rain-gauge observations, the 

 gauging of the whole of our streams, and the height and 

 seasonal variation of the water stored in the rocks beneath the 

 surface. 



C. E. DE Rance 



THE CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON 

 INSTITUTE 



"L7ROM the Report on the Technological Examinations, 1S84, 

 ■*- we learn that a considerable increase is shown in the number 

 of candidates at the recent examination, May 28, 1S84, as com- 

 pared with that of the previous year. In 1883, 2397 candidates 

 were examined, of whom 1498 passed. In 1884, 3635 were 

 examined, of whom 1829 passed. There is also shown a satis- 

 factory increase in the number_of centres at which the examina- 

 tions have been held. 



From the returns received at the office of the Institute in 

 November last, it appears that 5S74 persons were receiving in- 

 struction, with a view to these examinations, in the registered 

 classes of the Institute. The number of students at the corre- 

 sponding period of the previous year was 4052, this being 585 in 

 excess of the number in 18S2. Of the candidates who received 

 instruction in the registered classes of the Institute, about one- 

 half presented themselves for examination ; of the remaining 

 candidates who came up, some had received instruction in col- 

 leges the Professors in which do not accept payment on results, 

 whilst others had supplemented their workshop practice by 

 private study. 



This year, as last year, Glasgow heads the list of centres from 

 which the largest number of candidates have passed, the number 

 being 139, as compared with 123 in 1S83. Of the other centres, 

 Manchester sent up 115 successful candidates, as against 76 in 

 the previous year; Bolton 98, as against 117 ; Bradford 90, as 

 against 51 ; Leeds 70, as against 64 (50 coming from the York- 

 shire College, as against 43) ; Preston 59, as against 46. 



In carpentry and joinery, which was added this year to the 

 examination programme, 369 candidates were examined, of 

 whom 125 passed. Nottingham sent up this year for the first 

 time 19 candidates in lace manufacture, of whom 13 succeeded 

 in satisfying the examiner. 



Examinations were held this year in 43 subjects, as against 37 

 in 1883, the only subjects included in the programme in which 

 no examinations were held being the Mechanical Preparation of 

 Ores and Salt Manufacture. 



Practical examinations were held this year for the first time in 

 weaving and pattern designing, and in metal plate work, and 

 owing to an alteration in the arrangements for the conduct of the 

 Practical Examination in Mine Surveying, the results of the 

 examination in this subject are also included in the accompanying 

 tables. 



Of the 23 candidates for honours who, besides undergoing a 

 written examination in pattern designing and weaving, sent up 

 specimens of their work, 13 succeeded in obtaining a certificate. 

 In metal plate work, two candidates presented themselves for 

 honours, but neither succeeded in obtaining the institute's certi- 

 ficate. In all subjects of examination, the honours certificate of 

 the Institute is intended to be regarded as a diploma of pro- 

 ficiency, and is awarded in those cases only, in which the 

 candidate shows a sound theoretical and practical knowledge of 

 the subject. 



The percentage of failures on the results of the examinations 

 in all the subjects has increased from 37 "5 in 18S3 to 49^7 in 

 1S84. This increase in the number of failures is due to many 

 causes, which are referred to in the separate reports of the ex- 

 aminers, prominent among which is the want of skill in drawing, 

 and of previous science teaching on the part of the candidates. 

 In many subjects, too, there is still experienced the serious want 

 of competent teachers, which it is hoped will to some extent be 

 remedied when the Central Institution is in working order. 



The large accession to the total number of candidates is due 

 mainly to the increase in the number of candidates in cloth and 

 cotton manufacture, in weaving and in mechanical engineering, 

 and to the addition of the subject of carpentry and joinery to 

 tile programme. In 28 subjects there has been an increase in 

 the number of candidates ; in nine subjects, chiefly chemicals, 



