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.

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    but simply to arrive at the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as nearly as the evidence brought before us would permit. The whole enquiry seemed to resolve itself into the three following questions, which we found to admit of being answered with different degrees of logical and scientific certainty, though for all practical purposes the result is much the same in each: viz. 1. Whether the water supplied to the inhabitants by the different Waterworks * * * § has, in its natural state, such “ a peculiar affinity for lead”T as to render it probable that it will become contaminated by passing through leaden pipes or being kept in leaden cisterns ; 2. Whether the water used bv the inhabitants of «/ those houses in which there are leaden cisterns, is con¬ taminated with such “ a considerable quantity of lead” as to be likely “ to produce dangerous disease J And 3. Whether, in point of fact, cases of lead¬ poisoning from wrater do frequently occur among the inhabi¬ tants and visitors of the Borough. 1. With respect to the first point (viz., the quality of the water in its natural state,) one gentleman says § that “ it is a notorious fact that the water supplied in these Towns has a peculiar affinity for lead/’ He also “ asserts that the leaden tanks are eaten away rapidly and that “ plumbers say that an inch [or thick] leaden tank will be eaten in holes in three years, ” which statement he apparently believes. In order to ascertain the correctness of these assertions we sent to Dr. Alfred Taylor a sample of water taken * It would have been manifestly impossible to have extended our enquiries by examining the water of each separate pump or well; and in fact this examination would (as far as our present business is concerned,) have been practically useless, as the water taken from pumps and wells probably never enters leaden pipes or cisterns at all. See Appendix, p. 9. note, f See Appendix, No. 2. p. 3. J See Appendix, No. 13. p. 17. § See Appendix, No. 2. p. 3. and No. 32. p. 35.