Report of the water of the West Middlesex Water-Works Company / by Alfred S. Taylor and Arthur Aikin.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the water of the West Middlesex Water-Works Company / by Alfred S. Taylor and Arthur Aikin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    G some kinds of hard waters on lead, do not apply to the West Middlesex Water either in a chemical or medical point of view. Another property assigned to good water is pure aeration. The only gaseous constituents found in this water, were oxygen and nitrogen (air) with carbonic acid. Of the two former, water dis- solves but a very small proportion, while the latter is dissolved by it in large quantity. The quantity of the latter was sufficiently large to give freshness to most of the samples. In this respect, therefore, the water may be regarded as pure and wholesome. Lastly, we may remark, that the proportion of organic matter contained in this water is so exceedingly small that in our judg- ment it cannot affect health. It would be scarcely possible to procure potable water in large quantity entirely free from or- ganic matter : and when the proportion is so small as not to < . affect the colour, taste, or smell of the water, there is no reason to believe that injury to health can result from its presence. We have submitted the clear and sedimentary portions of the whole of these waters to a microscopical examination, and have found vegetable matter with a few living infusoria (paramecia and mo- nades) only in the broum sediment, which had been allowed to accumulate, from about sixty ounces of Nos. 1 and 7. The clear water of the seven samples presented, under a high magni- fying power, no specimens of living animalcula. These minute organisms are, however, liable to be found in the very purest waters, as well as in every variety of hard or soft water, in which vegetable matter has been infused. With respect to mechanical impurity, this chiefly consists of fine sand, chalk, oxide of iron, and vegetable matter. After heavy and long continued rains, the water, owing to the admixture of these substances, is liable to become opalescent, and to acquire a yellowish colour. Although there is nothing unwholesome in such an admixture, it is repulsive to the eye; it is an accident to which all river-waters, and all surface- waters, flowing through alluvial or chalk districts, are exposed. I he West Middlesex Water has occasionally presented this appearance, and a sample taken early in February 1851, had it in a remarkable degree. To a certain extent, this sedimentary matter is got rid of by subsidence: the remedy, however, is filtration through a sand filter. Ihis is more effectual when performed on a small scale in every household, than when carried out on a large scale, in which case the water passes through too rapidly to admit of the perfect separation of the mechanical impurity. The filtered water of the Southwark Com- pany, supplied to Guy's Hospital in February 1851, was just as turbid and coloured as the unfiltered water supplied at the same time to the West of London by the West Middlesex Company.