Three reports relating to the Hastings water : with an appendix of letters, &c. / Ordered to be printed by the Hastings Local Board of Health.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three reports relating to the Hastings water : with an appendix of letters, &c. / Ordered to be printed by the Hastings Local Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    37/60 (page 17)
    use of leaden tanks at Hastings. Having seen in my professional occupations frequent instances of the injurious and fatal effects of lead-poisoning in years past, my mind has always remained sensibly alive to that insidious enemy. Cases occurred to me here, in which all the symp- toms of lead-poisoning became so 'palpably manifest to me and other physicians elsewhere, that I sought for lead in the water, and I found it ! I therefore became, as you state, “ the mover in the matter.” To my utter amaze- ment and disappointment I learned that my acts and motives had been violently assailed by some members of the Town Council, and epithets applied to me with a taste I shall not attempt to characterize. In my own defence, I sent two specimens of water taken from leaden cisterns to Dr. R. D. Thomson, of St.Thomas’s Hospital, for analysis ; —he found them to he contaminated with a very consider- able quantity of lead, sufficient to produce dangerous disease, ^c.” * Take my word for it, that that man is not an honest supporter of the interests of the town who slavers the beauty with flattery and idolatry only, and conceals her im- perfections. Let them rather he sought out in a kindly and delicate manner, and be properly remedied. Con- sidering the extremely false and painful position in which I have been placed by some Members of the Municipal body, I beg to decline having my name associated in any manner, for the future, with anything connected with the water supply of Hastings. I shall, at all times, make it my duty and pleasure to support the best interests of Hastings and St. Leonards, but I shall certainly never again place myself in a similar position to that which I have done in this instance. I am. Sir, faithfully yours, C. B. GARRETT. To the Town Clerk. * [It is not known how or where these specimens were procured. See below, Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27. p. 29, &c.]