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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    Perth—the ancestors of its present citizens—could not be supposed to have beeu acquainted with Sanitary Science : but now there is no excuse for ignorance of facts that are patent to the Million. 3. The Reflux of Sewage and its deleterious gases into the the drains underlying the streets and houses of Perth—at floods or high tides—should be prevented either by (а) Pumping the City Sewage to high levels, and utilising it for (1) Irrigation Pimposes: or (2) The manufacture of gas: or by what is probably preferable— (б) The adoption of Captain Liernurs system of Pneumatic Drainage. 4. There ought to be in Perth—as there is in so many other, and frequently smaller, towns, a Medical Officer of Health and Public Analyst. 5. There ought to exist a complete series of Chemical analyses of the various classes of Waters in and around Perth: showing, on the one hand, the amount of decaying organic matter, and, on the other, of the salts of lime or other salts which impart the condition or quality known as Hardness. In the absence of any such series of analyses —accessible to, and specially made for behoof of, the the Public of Perth and its suburbs,—I subjoin a short comparative table indicating the kind of information that is desirable :— Comparative Quality of Potable Waters, according to Professor Frankland, of London, in October, 1870. Total Solid Impurity, Previous Sewage or animal contamination (estimated). Total Hardness, 1. Glasgow— Loch Katrine, 2.40 0 0.88 Gorbals, .... 8.00 0 4.41 2, Aberdeen— River Dee, above Banchory, 4.36 0 2.03 3. Perth— River Tay, above the Bridge, 5.72 0 2.92 — at Bridgend, . 16.02 21.00 7.57 4. Dundee— Monikie, . . 13.52 200 6.59 Ladywell, . . . 66.90 32,280 1 24.22 . j. u/ uj.jj.r5 x ctlJlC Ullllgo UUl> lUIClUiy uLlt> serious and sudden contrast between the comparatively pure River-water drawn off before it is contaminated by ■Sewage, and the decidedly impure and objectionable Water*