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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    racter of an impartial observer, actuated only by zeal for the citizens in undertaking the laborious duty which he imposed on himself. „ . . . - The first remark made by A Physician, lying withm 1 is proper province and mine, is the exception he takes to the testimony of Dr Frankland and ])r Macadam, on the ground that both of these (gentlemen) are merely cheimsts, and have no title to speak as physicians or physiologists. ilie report states that the Committee sought the opinion ot .Ur Frankland as the very highest authority on suck a question, by the advice of the Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, and I think most people who know anythmg of the subject will endorse his recommendation. It is the province of the chemist to ascertain the various purposes to which water is applied in a town, and the various qualities of water which can best subserve these pur- poses, and then by applying his analytical skil to such specimens of water as may be submitted to his judgment to determine how far they fulfil the required conditions, This Dr Frankland has very fully and clearly done m the report which you have sent to me; and if the physicum who has ventured to impugn his opinion be really entitled by his superior knowledge to do so, it is greatly to be regretted that, instead of writing anonymously, he had not favoured the public with his name, that it might have had due weight in this important enquiry. «A Physician speaks of lake water as mawkish, unaerated, of unstable temperature, and prone to be loaded with rotten vegetable organisms. I presume that all physicians^ fix)m the time of Celsus downwards have agreed with that lather of Medicine in the comparison which he thus makes ot the diff-erent qualities of water. Aqua levissima pluviahs est; deinde fontana ; turn ex flumine ; tum ex puteo ; post h^c ex nive aut glacie ; gravior his ex lacu ; gravissima ex palude. It is therefore to be regretted that engineers have not yet de- vised a satisfactory method of bringing water from sprmgs directly to the mouths of the thirsty inhabitants of large towns.