Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/34

 'below, formed a natural filter. It has proved thoroughly successful in practice, as all the objectionable ingredients which polluted the river are kept back. We also erected a large iron tank, whence all the strong ley is pumped up and re-used, so as to form an actual saving.'"

The extract concludes thus:—

"Experience has also satisfed us, that with trifling exceptions, the collieries and gasworks, paper mills and manufactories, can he carried forward equally well without fouling our once pellucid streams. In nearly every case it is but the outlay of a little extra capital, and when great concerns are planted near, and have the use-of our streams for their commercial purposes, surely it is not asking too much that the money advanced to plant a business should include the fractional sum necessary to prevent the owners of that concern from wilfully and unnecessarily destroying the property and rights of their neighbours."

In the supplement to the Registrar General's weekly return for August 6th, 1866, appear the following remarks on the water supply of the east districts of London, taken from Professor Frankland's Report:—

"The cause of the epidemic of Cholera consists, as is well known, of a zymotic matter in various degrees of activity, all over the London area, affecting the people in various ways through air, contact, and water. Hitherto in all great outbreaks here, the cholerine which this stuff may be called, has been distributed chiefly through water.

"It is the amount of organic matter contained in this water which is of special importance in connection with the outbreak of Cholera.

From the Registrar General's Report on the public health, for the year 1866,

"Dr. Farr states that there is no apparent decline in the rate of deaths from fever He considers it extremely probable that typhoid fever is sustained by the increasing contamination of the waters."

On the 6th May, 1867, the Commissioners on the Pollution of Rivers presented their 2nd Report which refers to the Lea.