44 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
In another part of the Report many analyses are given of 
shallow wells in London, some of which have a manure value 
150 per cent, greater than that of London sewage. Only two 
of the public wells are considered safe ; they are the pump near 
the south-east entrance to Kensington Gardens, and a well at 
the Maritime Almshouses, Mile End Old Town. Of thirty-nine 
shallow public wells which existed within the City in 1866, 
only four are still open. Dr. S. Saunders has lately recom- 
mended that these be closed by order of the City authorities 
or of the Secretary of State. 
This is a matter which has long been a public disgrace. 
There may be difficulties in the way of providing large towns 
with a plentiful supply of good water, but there should be 
none to prevent the closing of public wells which yield slow 
poison. 
At the late Birmingham Sanitary Congress several speakers 
dwelt emphatically on the evils resulting from shallow wells ; 
in Leeds and Bristol many such wells have been closed by the 
local authorities. 
Rural districts are little if any better off than towns in this 
respect. Dr. Voelcker states that he analyses a dozen samples 
of bad water from country places for every one from towns, and 
that many drinking waters sent to him for analysis are fitted 
rather for irrigation. Mr. F. Sutton states that out of 429 
samples of water taken from wells in the open country, 307 had 
to be condemned. On inquiry, it invariably occurred that either 
a dead well or a cesspool existed within a few yards of the well. 
He thinks it probable that waters suspected to be bad were 
sent for analysis. W e cannot of course suppose that 7 5 per cent, 
of country wells are so bad as this. 
But all this is an old and now familiar tale. Again and 
again we read in official reports of how the inhabitants of this 
or that house, village or town, are poisoned by the foul water of 
shallow wells. Perhaps in some exceptional cases a little general 
interest is excited by the statement ; but the evils in the par- 
ticular cases are more or less redressed, and matters go on 
elsewhere much as they were before. People still speak enthu- 
siastically of the pleasant waters from their favourite wells, 
perhaps fed by the soakage from neighbouring cesspools or the 
drainage from adjacent burial-grounds. The connection between 
the source of pollution and the water drunk is not apparent, and 
little heed is given to scientific demonstration that such con- 
nection exists. And why should heed be given ? Is not the 
water always cool and sparkling, the cesspool out of sight, the 
graveyard old and long disused? In one case at least these 
conditions are not all fulfilled, as the following extract will 
show — sufficiently starfling in its simple horror, and needing 
