ON THE CIRCULATION OF UNDERGROUND WATERS. 57 



appear to be a matter not only worthy of inquiry into by the Association, 

 but one of national importance, and to demand imperial legislation. 



The average amount of hardness of the water of the deep wells of the 

 New Eed Sandstone, tabulated by the Rivers Pollution Commission, being 

 1 7°-9, and of the springs from the same formation no less than 18°-8, the 

 relation of hardness of water to the rate of the mortality of the persons 

 drinking it becomes a matter of great importance. 



The Commissioners give thrco Tables of Statistics that bear directly upon 

 this point. 



From Table I. it appears that in twenty-six towns inhabited by 1,933,524 

 persons, supplied with water not exceeding 5° of hardness, the average 

 death-rate was 29 - l per 1000 per annum. 



From Table II. we learn that in twenty -five towns inhabited by2,041,3S3 

 persons, drinking water of more than 5°, but not exceeding 10°, the average 

 death-rate was 28-3 per 1 000. 



In Table III. we find that sixty towns, with an aggregate population of 

 2,687,846, drinking water of more than 10° of hardness, the average death- 

 rate was only 24'3. 



Of the towns in Table I. none are supplied from the New Eed or Permian 

 formations. 



In Table II. three are so supplied. 



In Table III. ten are so supplied. 



From which it will be observed that the largest number of towns supplied 

 with New Red water is found in the Table with the lowest death-rate and 

 the hardest water. 



The same result is obtained if we compare towns of corresponding popu- 

 lations and occupations supplied from surface-areas with soft waters, and 

 those supplied by deep wells in the New Red Sandstone. Thus ^Manchester, 

 with 351,189 inhabitants, has an average death-rate of 32-0 per 1000 ; 

 while Birmingham, with 313,787, has only 24 - 4. And, again, Stirling, with 

 14,279 inhabitants, has an average of 26*1 per 1000; while Tranmere, with 

 16,143 inhabitants, has only 18-8. 



But it may possibly be objected that the high death-rate of Manchester is 

 not due to the softness of the water supplied to the inhabitants, but to tho 

 density of the population, the close proximity to the houses of cesspools and 

 ashpits, and the want of care experienced by children in the manufacturing 

 districts ; and, again, that the low death-rate of Tranmere is due to the 

 constant emigration of adults. And that these averages, being dependent 

 on so many external causes, not due to tho purity or impurity, hardness or 

 softness, of the water supply, is borne out by the facts that Greenock and 

 Plymouth, both supplied with soft water, with an equal number of in- 

 habitants, have a death-rate respectively of 32-6 and 23-3 per 1000, due to 

 difference of density of population, Greenock having only one house for every 

 twenty-eight people. And, again, Liverpool and Birkenhead, both supplied 

 with moderately hard water ; the former an old and densely populated town, 

 with a site saturated with what is injurious to health, has a death-rate of 34 

 per 1000 ; while Birkenhead, a new town on an open site with wide streets, 

 has a death-rate of only 24 per 1000, though mainly inhabited by a poor 

 and struggling class of persons. 



But, at the same time, it is worthy of note that the five inland manu- 

 facturing towns with the lowest death-rate are all supplied with hard water, 

 and all from the New Red Sandstone. 



