Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The quality of the Perth water supply. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![or failures of chemistry]—showing what are the risks to human life from the use, for ‘domestic supply, of waters that have been contaminated loith sewage. As samples of the kind of common-sense evidence to which I refer, I subjoin one or two quotations from the report on “ TheDomestic Water-Supply of Great Britain,” published by H.M. “ Bivers Pollution Commissioners,” in 1874:— (1) P. 17. “Dangerous water is . . . river or flow- ing water . . . which is known, from an actual inspection of the river or stream, to receive sewage, either discharged into.it directly, or mingling with it as surface drainage.” (2) P. 54, “ When any portion of the manure consists of human excrements, the organic matter dissolved in the water becomes not merely disgusting, but also dangerous.” (3) P. 129. “ Even when not contaminated by the actual admission into it of the sewage of towns and villages, (river water) is not of suitable quality for domestic purposes. But when it is further polluted by ex- cremental drainage, its use for drinlang and cooking becomes fraught with great risk to health.” “ Dangerous,” though “ palatable,” water is “ river water to which sewage gains access.” (4) P. 221. “Nothing short of abandonment of the inex- l^ressibly-nasty habit of mixing human excrements with our drinking water can confer upon us im- munity from the propagation of ejjidemics, through the medium of potable water.” (5) P. 290. “ If fatal results had never been known to follow the domestic use of such water, the refined feeling which separates the civilised man from the savage, and which excites loathing at the bare idea of organic matter which has formed part of a hu- man body being supplied for human consumption, ought here to make itself felt, and to secure the re- jection of such a beverage.” (6) P. 406. “It is difficult to conceive anything more disgusting and dangerous to health than a populous community . . systematically, and by an elabo- rate and costly arrangement of reservoirs, pumps, filters, and distributory apparatus, drinking its oion filtered sewage.'''' I have only to add that you are at perfect liberty to make any public use of this communication, which to the Perth Water Commission may seem desirable.—I am, &c., (Signed) W. L. Lindsay. We are enabled fartlier to bring this corres- pondence down to date by the following appendix —addressed to ns, and to the general public](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21966965_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
