110 



J. E. MAYER., ESQ. OX THE WATER 



Professor Parks, in his late work, published for the benefit 

 of the Medical Officers at Netly, gives the statement shewn 



in the margin : it remains to be 



Of all these substances, charcoal , n c , , , 



is the best ; it can remove 88 seen bow far further experiment 



per cent of organic matter w |§] connrm these statements, 

 and 28 per cent, of mineral " 



matters, it has removed 7 -48 and whether by percolation 



per cent, of chloride of sodium, _ n , , „ , . 



8-5 per cent, of lime salts and through large beds ot sand and 

 fwitt) 61 " C6nt ' ° f sulphuric acid charcoal such impure waters a s 



those now reported on can, even 



at first, be deprived of 88 per cent, of organic matter and 



10 per cent, of inorganic. 



There is one fact bearing on this point which we think it 

 our duty to bring prominently before the Committee, and 

 through them before Government. Repeated borings (not 

 less than 150) in every part of the thickly inhabited locali- 

 ties of Madras, with the examination of the soil thus turned 

 up, have proved that, however pure the water at certain 

 depths might originally be, it could not long remain so, as 

 the superincumbent and surrounding soil is saturated with 

 filthy decomposing organic matters of every kind, and it is 

 scarcely necessary to observe that water, by percolating 

 through such soil, will, of necessity, become loaded with 

 organic impurities, and thus rendered unfit for internal use. 

 The evidence on these points is so conclusive and so easily 

 obtainable, that it does not seem needful to insist on them 

 further. A little consideration will show that if these state- 

 ments are really true of Madras, they will obtain in a more or 

 less marked degree, wherever there is a dense population 

 with habits and customs such as those of the Madras people ; 

 and that the soil will be soddened and fouled with organic 

 decomposing matters in like manner : the facts, therefore, 

 admit of generalisation, and it may be received as a law, 

 that, wherever there is a dense Native population, there the 

 soil will become foul; and that it is from this cause impossi- 



