88 
contained very little lead, and only caused a minute trace 
of contamination in the water, but the majority contained a 
large percentage of lead, and polluted the water to a great 
extent. Ultimately, the gentleman who occupied the house 
referred to had the tin-lined lead pipe which replaced 
the lead one dug up, and communication with the well esta- 
blished by 500 yards of block-tin pipe; and since this change 
was made, he informed me lately that his family have en- 
joyed good health. 
There is another kind of lead pipe manufactured called 
“ tinned lead pipe,” the inside of which is covered with a 
very thin coating of a white metal to afford protection 
against the action of water on lead — as a matter of fact, this 
coating is not tin at all. It is produced by filling the first 
few inches of the ordinary lead pipe which is forced through 
the dies, whilst still very hot, with molten tin, which re- 
mains molten and washes the inner surface of the lead tube 
as it is produced. Presumably, when a long length of pipe 
has been forced through the dies, there would be little or 
no tin remaining, but I was informed by a manufacturer of 
this pipe that that is not the case ; on the contrary, there is 
a much larger volume of tin, to use his own language, at the 
end of the operation than there was at the beginning ; the 
molten tin dissolves the ]ead, thus increasing in volume, 
and so the coating is a mixture of lead and tin, the propor- 
tion of lead in the coating being greater in those portions 
of the pipe which are last forced through the die. 
Some years ago, not knowing of the existence of this kind 
of tinned lead pipe, I requested a plumber to make for me a 
worm refrigerator with tin-lined lead pipe for the preparation 
of distilled water. He did so, and to my astonishment, on 
testing the distilled water which had been condensed in it, 
I found it to contain a large proportion of lead. On exami- 
nation of the pipe afterwards I found it to be the variety 
which had been washed with tin. This coating cannot 
