1884 .] Correspondence. 559 
that lead would never be used except by the most disreputable 
makers of the cheapest and commonest articles, who are cut 
down to farthings in their prices by middlemen having no reputa- 
tion to lose. To suggest that such a mixture is used by any 
decent maker of tinned articles is an injustice to the trade gene- 
rally, which certainly should not be saddled with the sins of a 
few rogues. On page 356 you state that “ it is a strange thing 
we cannot obtain in this country stoves of glazed earthenware. ” 
They can be obtained from several English makers, — amongst 
others from Doulton of Lambeth, and Cliff and Sons of Wortley, 
— but being costly they are very rarely put in a house by any 
tenant, whose property they would remain, and therefore their 
use is very limited. In countries where the winter cold is ex- 
cessive, and fuel is dear, stoves are almost universally used, and 
are built with the houses, remaining the property of the land- 
lord ; whereas in England very few will use any stove, and being 
used for temporary or commercial purposes the cheapest and 
most portable forms are almost always selected. The same 
remark applies to gas-fires, which, being used as a makeshift or 
addition to existing arrangements, are almost unsaleable, except 
in the cheapest possible forms. Few tenants will go to the 
expense of removing an existing fireplace for a better one, with 
the risk of having to remove it when they leave the house ; and 
for this reason there is little hope for the adoption of costly por- 
celain stoves or well-made and well-finished gas-fires, both 
arrangements being looked on as a temporary makeshift to be 
obtained in the cheapest form, with little consideration as to 
either beauty or efficiency. 
Thomas Fletcher. 
[We cannot accept “ respectability ” as evidence against 
analytical results. — Ed. J. S,] 
THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS AND 
THAMES POLLUTION. 
Since you allowed me to point out the mistake of the Board of 
Works in attempting to purify the Thames with chloride of lime, 
you will perhaps permit me to say a few words on the still more 
absurd scheme which they have now taken up — treatment with 
permanganate of potash or soda. 
It is doubtless not generally known to the ratepayers of London 
that this substance is generally worth upwards of £100 per ton, 
— sometimes as much as £”140 ! The Board are indeed sanguine 
enough to hope that by setting up works of their own they can 
