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

  • Hastings (England). Local Board of Health.
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.

    10/58
    Upon the receipt of this Report, so different from what some of us expected, and apparently so contradictory to the results obtained by Ur. R. U. Thomson, we thought it right again to communicate, through the Town Clerk,* with the gentleman in question, in order to give him an oppor¬ tunity of substantiating his statement, and explaining the discrepancy between the two analyses. As he again de¬ clined to avail himself of this opportunity, (although it was proposed that he should take the samples himself in the presence of a competent witness,)f and as we have consequently no accurate information as to how or where his specimens were procured, we shall not attempt to dis¬ cuss this part of the question any further, but shall simply state that no authenticated case of contaminated water, fairly drawn from a leaden cistern, has been brought before us; and that, until such specimens are produced, we are justified (on Ur. Taylor’s authority,) in believing the amount of lead ordinarily present to be “ too small to pro¬ duce dangerous (lead) disease.” (p. xix.) J 3. The remaining point of enquiry is the most im¬ portant of all, viz. Whether cases of lead-poisoning from * See Appendix, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. p. 28, &c. f See Appendix, No. 27. p. 32. It appears from this gentle¬ man’s last letter to the Mayor (Appendix, No. 35. p. 37.) tha early in December he “ sent word to the Water Committee, that, if any one of that body would call upon him, he would shew him the specimens of water he had analyzed, tell him where he had obtained them, and give every information in his power ; and that this offer was never accepted.” All this, however, took place long before the matter was referred to our Society. X In connection with this part of the subject we ought to men¬ tion that it is probable that the number of leaden cisterns within the Borough is much less than was imagined. One gentleman “ thinks he is right in saying that forty-nine out of fifty [or 98 per cent.] of the tanks [in dwelling-houses] are leaden.” (See Appendix, No. 2. p. 2.) The number of leaden cisterns in St. Clement’s parish is 114 out of 166, or only about 69 per cent.: and it is supposed that in the more modern parts of the Borough the proportion is still less.