State board of Health. 
289 
was the first against which these officious people, who want to in¬ 
terfere with the inalienable right of their neighbors to poison them¬ 
selves, directed their spite. 
“Now the water of this ancient well has a traditionary celebrity 
in the district; so much so that many of the inhabitants consider 
that a morning draught from it is a sovereign remedy for certain 
ailments, and send for the water from long distances when they feel 
‘ out of sorts.’ The flavor and appearance of the water are in keep¬ 
ing with its good name. It is clear, sparkling, and has a cool, sal¬ 
ine flavor which is very agreeable to the palate, and which is harm¬ 
less enough when the saline ingredients are not accompanied by 
organic taint. In this case, however, the analysis made by Profes¬ 
sor Wauklyn shows that the cool, refreshing flavor is due to the 
impregnation of the water with salts derived from decomposing 
sewage, which evidently finds its way into the well, partially filtered 
and decomposed by the surrounding soil. The soil itself is heavily 
loaded with organic matter, and does not form an efficient filter; 
thus the water is polluted with a considerable amount of organic 
matter. But, for all this, the popular feeling in its favor is so strong 
that resistance has been made, on the ground of certain ‘ city priv¬ 
ileges,’ to closing the well, and it is said that an appeal to the home 
secretary will be necessary to prevent its further use.” 
This case led to an examination of the other London pumps, and 
Frankland states the result in a letter to the Times: 
“ Samples collected from all the known shallow wells in the me¬ 
tropolis, having been analyzed in the laboratory of the Rivers Pol¬ 
lution Commissioners, were proved, with but two exceptions, to 
consist chiefly or entirely of the soakage from sewers and cess¬ 
pools, and some of them actually had a manure value 150 per cent, 
greater than that of average London sewage! One or two had a 
slight saline taste, piquant to some water drinkers, but most of 
them were bright and palatable, and the pumps yielding them enjoy 
for the most part as high a reputation with street commissioners as 
Aldgate pumps had had. 
“ These facts are worth recording as curiosities of history in this 
nineteenth century, but we allude to them mainly for the sake of 
emphasizing what we have more than once urged upon the atten¬ 
tion of our readers, namely, that very bad water may not seem to 
19—A 
