Interim report by the Works Committee of the Edinburgh and District Water Trustees.

Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Interim report by the Works Committee of the Edinburgh and District Water Trustees. 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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    INTERIM REPORT by the WORKS COMMITTEE of the EDINBURGH and DISTRICT WATER TRUSTEES. 28th November 1870. Of this date a letter, signed Physician, appeared in the nth Nov. Scotsman newspaper, impugning the quality of the water of ' St Mary's Loch, and predicting various injurious results to the communities of Edinburgh, Leith, and Portobello from the use of water drawn from that source. This letter was fol- lowed of this date by another letter bearing the same signa- I4th Nov. ^ ture, and in whicli the objections of the writer to the water of St Mary's Loch for town supply were reiterated and extended. ' , The unconcealed hostility of purpose which pervaded I both of these letters, deprived them of all claim to considera- 1 tion as the opinions of a citizen animated, as the writer professed to be, by a pure spirit of zeal for the public interest. Nor did it need much acquaintance with the subjects on which the wiiter professed to offer an opinion to see, not only that he looked at the subject from a wholly erron- eous standpoint, but that his science was as ftiulty as his knowledge of the facts upon which he ventured to speak. At the same time the Committee were not ignorant that an attempt was being industriously made to prejudice the public mind against the St Mary's Loch Scheme by objections such as were advanced in the letters of the Physician. It therefore appeared to the Committee that these documents afforded a legitimate opportunity for dealing with and confuting the ' objections which they contained, and which might impose upon, and give some uneasiness to, persons not acquainted with ' the subject.