328 The Water Supply of London, [July, 



the doctor is drawn in by the husband to see the wife now attacked ; 

 there the husband lies in spasms ; here is an old woman seated dead 

 with eyes wide open ; there lies a fine four-year old child, his curly 

 head drooping in death, but his mother says the pulse is strong and 

 he takes what she gives him. An older brother just recovered is 

 running about. Several wards of the London Hospital are full of 

 patients, many of them very young children, in all stages of the 

 disease; some dying, some well again and playing. The medical 

 men have no rest, and with the Health Officers are nobly doing 

 their duty ; brave men ready to lay down their lives for their 

 patients. The people themselves are most patient, most willing to 

 help each other, the women always in front, and none shrinking 

 danger. There is no desertion of children, husbands, wives, fathers, 

 or mothers from fear." 



This picture of misery, traced with such a high degree of 

 probability by eminent medical authorities to the sewage pollution 

 of water, suggests the inquiry whether or not anything can be done 

 with regard to our present water supply to prevent such frightful 

 accidents in future. How can we best protect ourselves against 

 this noxious contamination ? The answer is, there is no absolutely 

 reliable protection. Filtration through, animal charcoal is perhaps 

 the best safeguard, but I have shown that this process fails to 

 remove from water the matter which is believed to constitute 

 cholera poison. Permanganate of potash is also an excellent 

 purifier of water, but there is not the slightest evidence that this 

 agent can destroy cholera poison. Boiling the water for a short 

 time is no guarantee that its noxious qualities are destroyed, for even 

 on the very probable supposition that cholera and other similar poisons 

 are organic germs, we know that many such germs, especially those 

 which are of a low type, retain their vitality after being boiled in 

 water, or even after exposure to a temperature of 248° F. for a con- 

 siderable time. The late Dr. Lindley mentions the fact of raspberry 

 seeds germinating after being boiled for jam, and as syrup boils at a 

 higher temperature than water these seeds must have been exposed to 

 a heat considerably higher than that of boiling water. Nearly twenty 

 years ago a curious red fungus or mould (Oidium aurantiacum) 

 attacked the bread of Paris. M. Payen exposed pieces of bread, 

 upon which spores of the fungus had been sown, for half-an-hour 

 to a temperature of 248° F. iu tubes ; the red fungus afterwards 

 germinated, although its vitality was destroyed when the tempe- 

 rature was raised to 284° F. I have incontrovertible evidence of 

 the production of violent cramps and diarrhoea by the diinking of 

 tea made from water which, previous to boiling, had become con- 

 taminated with sewage. 



Nevertheless, whilst none of these methods can be relied upon 

 for the destruction of noxious organic matter in water, I am far 



