Public water-supply : with special reference to the requirements of Perth / by W. Lauder Lindsay.

Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public water-supply : with special reference to the requirements of Perth / by W. Lauder Lindsay. 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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    vate Individuals, on the vexed question of Water-supply, I am not in the habit of reading the newspaper or other accounts of petty local squabbles. I am, therefore, not in a position to apportion the Culpability, that I nevertheless believe to be attachable to those who, having it in their power to provide Perth with an ample supply of suitable Water, have hitherto signally failed to do so. I. General Propositions. 1. Water-supply, whether Public or Private, for a city or a dwelling, should be practically unlimited. Abundance of Water is required, not only for Drinking and Cooking, but for Bathing, Washing clothes, Flushing W.C.’s, Drains and Sewers, Closes and Streets;—and, in cities, for a host of Manufacturing purposes. 2. Where it is necessary or desirable to fix a Minimum Standard, there should not be less than 50 gallons per head of the Population per day, for all purposes. In pro- portion as a Water-supply falls below this regular daily amount, it is to be regarded as inadequate or defective. 3. When a large important River—fed by Highland Lochs—flows through a town, there is no pvoper excuse for the absence of an unlimited supply of suitable Water. 4. Much life, health, and happiness are sacrificed to or by insufficient or improper Water-supply in this country; and a heavy Responsibility thus devolves on those whose Duty it is to provide a supply of so essential a Sanitary element as Water, suitable in the double respect of Quantity and Quality. 5. Deficient Quantity and improper Quality in Water- supply are expensive to a community— (a) By the sacrifice of Life or Health, and the loss thereby of valuable productive labour. (b) By direct outlay- for instance on Soap and Soda, or other material—in the use of Hard waters for the washing of clothes, for cooking, and for boiler purposes. (c) By the enormous waste of force, time, and money involved in the mere mechanical work of pumping and carrying water ; waste which would be pre- vented by a proper Gravitation supply. (d) By the destruction of Lead, or other material used in the construction of cisterns or manufacture of pipes, on which water—soft or hard, cold or hot — acts detrimentally. 6. The same Quality of Water is not required for differ- ent domestic,municipal, or manufacturing purposes. Thus (a) For Cooking food and Washing clothe®, soft water is desirable. (b) For Drinking, that which is slightly hard is per- missible. (c) For Flushing and cleansing, and for many public works, Purity is of less consequence than Amount —quality is of secondary importance to quantity. 7. There ought to be, in every city of 10,000 inhabi- v
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