52 On the future Water-supply of London. [Jan., 



deadly effects of cholera in the East of London received an impulse, 

 amongst other causes, from the impurity of the water supplied to 

 the inhabitants of those districts. 



Of all cities in the world the Metropolis of the British Empire 

 ought to be the first in procuring for itself all the elements of 

 healthful existence. It has a population of 3,000,000 souls, ever 

 increasing. It is the residence during some part of the year of the 

 Court, the Parliament, and the aristocracy of rank and intellect : it 

 is the common property, not of a county or a district, but of the 

 nation, and hence whatever affects its social condition interests the 

 nation at large. 



We should like to know from those enthusiastic philanthropists, 

 the total abstainers, for whose opinions we entertain respect, whether 

 such of them as may be residents in Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, 

 or Birmingham, ever make the hazardous experiment of quaffing a 

 glass of cold water fresh from the cistern or pipe in the city of 

 London. If so, we venture to think their principles must sustain 

 a severe test on such an occasion. For ourselves we are perfectly 

 sincere in saying, that unless the water were previously boiled, it 

 would require a large sum to induce us to perform a feat to which 

 we are by no means unaccustomed in many of the large towns of 

 the North. Boding and filtration will no doubt render London 

 water to a great degree innocuous, but it certainly does not render 

 it palatable; and it can scarcely be denied that a supply which 

 requires in its use such precautions is not adapted for general 

 consumption. 



No blame can be attached to the Water Companies for this state 

 of things. They have endeavoured to turn to account the sources 

 which were conveniently at hand, and the water drawn from them 

 undergoes a process of filtration through sand and gravel. But it 

 ought to be thoroughly understood, that no such process can elimi- 

 nate the soluble or microscopic ingredients which render water 

 derived from an inhabited district unfit for human uses. That too- 

 celebrated London pump, which was the cause of death to 600 

 persons, is said to have yielded water which was apparently clear 

 and good. 



The water-supply of a large town ought to be derived either by 

 pumping from considerable depths in the solid strata in a thinly 

 inhabited district, or by utilizing the streams which descend from 

 mountainous tracts where the population is scant and the rainfall 

 abundant. The position of London renders it admirably adapted 

 for receiving its water-supply from wells. The London basin is 

 indeed a great natural reservoir, from which large quantities of 

 water are already obtained by wells sunken through the Tertiary 

 Clay into the Chalk formation, and is capable of yielding much 

 more. Even were the supply from the Chalk and Green Sand 



