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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    by soakage into them of manure, sewage, and other forms of decay tan organic matter. The dangerous impregnation is sometimes such that well-waters are virtually Diluted Sewage. A host of recent evidence shows that open wells •are most objectionable as the sources of Water-supply. 14. The influence of such contaminated waters on the generation of Disease, especially of Typhoid fever and Cholera, has been pointed out, in a special section, by the Rivers Pollution Commissioners in their last Report. 15. Water-supply, when taken from tidal rivers, should be drawn off above the influence of the Tides, as well as above sources of pollution by city sewers or public works. 16. Filtration should be chemical as well as mechanical. It should ensure the removal or destruction of everything— organic or inorganic—that might be dangerous to Public Health, or uneconomical for other Public purposes. 17. No W.C.’s should draw directly from the Mains: and there should be no possibility of Regurgitation of faecal and other deleterious gases into the water—used for drinking —contained or conveyed in cisterns or pipes. 18. There should be due ventilation as well as Trapping * of W.C.’s, Drains, and Sewers, of all kinds and sizes. 19. It is desirable, where possible, that House-supply should be from the Mains direct, so as to avoid storage and cisterns. 20. Where cisterns must be used, they should be con- structed of some material on which water does not act: and they should also be duly covered, and their contents at the -same time duly aerated. 21. The cleanliness of cisterns, whether covered or un- covered, cannot be too carefully attended to : in order to which regular (periodical) examination and cleansing are desirable. 22. Lead is so objectionable that it should never be used either in the construction of cisterns or of pipes : and so many other materials are at the command of Architects and Plumbers that there is no necessity whatever for their absurd adhesion to a metal on which water is at all times liable to act—to the risk of dangerous contamination of Water-supply. 23. Efficient means should be taken to prevent waste where Water-supply—in towns or dwellings—is costly and scarce. 24. Public Water-supply should always be by Gravita- tion from High Levels—that is from ample Reservoirs placed at higher levels than the highest houses to be sup- plied. II. Special Propositions. 1. The original Pounders of Perth committed an egregious blunder in planting the city on a plain—contiguous to the River and below its level at Flood-mark ! 2. But their successors of the present day are much more blame-worthy in locating not only Private Dwellings but important Public Institutions with no reference or re- gard to their Water-supplj?. The ancient inhabitants of