1876.] Scheme of Water Supply. 315 
apt to prefer a source of supply to which they have all along 
been accustomed.* 
Machinery for carrying out a General System of Water-Supply 
for Villages and Hamlets. 
We come now to the difficult question as to the machinery 
for carrying out such a system of water-supply as is here 
proposed ; and perhaps the first step to be taken is to ascer- 
tain to what extent the evil of insufficient or polluted water- 
supply prevails in country places. 
This, I think, might be effected by means of the agency 
evoked under “ The Public Health A 6 t of 1872.” Under 
the clauses of that ACt the Rural Sanitary Authorities have 
the power of appointing a Medical Officer of Health and an 
Inspector of Nuisances for a period of five years; and it 
would probably not be difficult, by their co-operation, to ob- 
tain returns from all the parishes included in the rural 
sanitary districts, together with the villages and hamlets 
contained therein. I would propose that a simple form of 
circular be drawn up by the authority of the Local Govern- 
ment Board, which the officers above named should be re- 
quired to fill up and return, stating — 1st. The names of the 
villages or hamlets in each rural sanitary district. 2nd. The 
number of houses. 3rd. The existing mode of water-supply. 
4th. The opinion of the medical officers regarding the 
nature and quality of such water, if any there be. And 
5th. Observations regarding the general health of the inha- 
bitants, and the presence of zymodic diseases. 
It would then be the duty of the Local Government 
Board to eliminate the names of those villages or hamlets 
in which it would appear, from such returns, that the water- 
supply was sufficient, both as regards quantity and quality ; 
and then would remain those residuary cases requiring to 
be dealt with under the scheme here proposed. They would 
probably be found to amount to several hundreds within the 
limits of the area dealt with in this paper. 
It would doubtless be advisable, in carrying out such a 
scheme, that the existing parliamentary powers should be 
called into requisition. After perusing “ The Public Health 
ACt of 1872,” it seems to me that with slight modification 
that ACt might be made available. The division of the 
whole country into (1) Urban and (2) Rural Sanitary Dis- 
tricts is excellent, and at once determines the districts 
* Such power is granted to the Local Sanitary Authority under the Ad of 
* 874 - 
