The London Water-Supply

Abstract

THE London water-supply is so important a question, and at the same time one upon which there prevails so much misapprehension, that the appearance of an impartial, candid, and, in the main, accurate treatise like the one before us must be judged seasonable. A full discussion, indeed, of so many-sided and complicated a subject cannot be expected within the compass of 112 pages. Nor is there, perhaps, any man living who is qualified to give an authoritative deliverance on all the considerations involved,—on the one hand, medical, chemical, and engineering, and on the other hand, financial, legal, ethical, and municipal, if not actually political. These two main branches of the inquiry should be kept substantially distinct. For it is at least conceivable that a water-supply might be found irreproachable in quality and ample in quantity, and yet might be furnished on terms so iniquitous as to call for a sweeping reform. Again, a contaminated water might be dealt out in a manner which at least involved no injustice or oppression.

The London Water-Supply; its Past, Present, and Future.

By G. Phillips Bevan. With a Map showing the Districts of the Water Companies. (London: E. Stanford, 1884.)