1867.] and the Cholera. 327 



that water obtained from such sources will be as free from dele- 

 terious organic contamination as that of Loch Katrine. 



In the event of a new source of water supply being at once 

 determined upon, at least seven years must elapse before it can be 

 rendered available to the metropolis ; it therefore becomes important 

 to inquire how far it is possible in the interim to ameliorate our 

 present supply. The first and most obvious improvement would be 

 the substitution of the constant for the intermittent system of 

 delivery. With certain restrictions, all the metropolitan companies 

 express then willingness to make this change, and with the unani- 

 mity of opinion regarding its advisability, it is difficult to account 

 for the delay in effecting it, unless it arise from the paltry cost 

 involved in the alteration of present fittings, which would fall upon 

 the landlords of small tenements. Most towns of importance in 

 Great Britain have been long supplied with water on the constant 

 system ; why then is this boon denied to London, where it is much 

 more urgently required ? Until this alteration is effected it is, for 

 the bulk of the population, almost useless to improve the quality of 

 the water. Where a supply for one or even two days has to be 

 stored in a filthy butt, exposed to the foul atmosphere of a crowded 

 court or alley, good and wholesome water can never reach the lips 

 of the consumers. 



The most formidable danger arising from the use of the present 

 water supply is undoubtedly the liability to actual sewage contami- 

 nation such as that which there is every reason to believe destroyed 

 so many lives in the East of London last summer. The fearful 

 import of such contamination is most graphically described by Dr. 

 Farr, in the report of the Registrar General for the week ending 

 July 28th, 1866. It is greatly to be wished that these reports 

 which contain the weekly results of the great hygienic reactions of 

 the community were more generally studied by the public, and 

 especially by those who watch over the public health. It would be 

 difficult, if not impossible, to find in the same space matter of 

 greater or more immediate importance to a civilized nation, and it 

 scarcely admits of doubt that by the prompt action rendered pos- 

 sible by these reports, thousands of lives were saved last summer in 

 the metropolis alone. Describing what he saw in one of his visits 

 to the East of London during the height of the cholera epidemic, 

 Dr. Farr says : — " The mortality is overwhelming in some of the dis- 

 tricts. In Poplar alone, 145 ; in Bow, 188 people died last week, 

 including Dr. Ansell, the meritorious health officer, and Mr. Seeley, 

 clerk to the Board of Works, whose name figures on the placards. 

 The people are falling ill every hour ; you see them of all ages, 

 children and adults, lying about their beds like people under the 

 influence of a deadly poison ; some acutely suffering, nearly all con- 

 scious of their fate and of all that is going on around them. Here 



