History of the London water supply : from the creation of man to A.D. 1884 / by Adam Gladstone.
- Gladstone, Adam.
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: History of the London water supply : from the creation of man to A.D. 1884 / by Adam Gladstone. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![If the crude sewage of a city with a population of more than four millions can, witliout serious ill-effects, be poured into the Thames, and after oscillating up and down the river for fifteen miles or more, form foul banks of mud, it is plain that tlie whole theory and practice of modern sanitary improvement must be a mockery, a delusion, and a costly humbug. Yet the Royal Commission now sitting say such are the facts produced under the modern legislation of 18r)8 by that ne'er-do-well Board, the Metropolitan r>oard of Works. It is a most serious thins; for the ratepayers to find, after a quarter of a century's trial, that this Board has blundered in every important work it has undertaken. Some say, as the present Postmaster-General did when the Board wanted to tamper with water supply. The Board is ah'eady overworlced, and it would be miAvise to throw upon it this additional duty. If tliis be so, why not reduce its duties, so that the ])ublic may have something done as it ought to be? AVhat of the times before the Metropolitan Board, when London had but one Government, and that the grand old Corporation? Of times when the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, riding forth on horseback, with their laches following in wagons, took their annual survey of the conduits, after which they used to hunt the hare across the neighbouring fields, then dine with the Chamberlain, after dinner go to hunting the fox, and after great halloomg at his death and blowing of homes ride back through London to the Mansion House? Tliis was before the advent of the water-mill at London Bridge, or the water](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22278072_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
