DR. HECTOR ON THE WELLINGTON WATER SUPPLY.

Evening Post, Volume XV, Issue 284, 4 December 1877, Page 2

DR. HECTOR ON THE WELLINGTON WATER SUPPLY.

Dr. Hector, iv reporting on the water supply for Wellington, writes regarding ralu • water caught on galvanised iron or shinglo roofs, aud preserved in plain or zinc-coated iron tankß, or in wooden barrels :—": — " None of these can ever afford absolutely puro water, as even rain water, when freshly fallen, contains a minute quantity of foreign matters dissolved in it, and these are largely added to by the absorption of the impurities that settle on the roofs, or find their way accidentally into the tanks. It requires to be noted that when the rain water is caught on zinc or corrugated iron roofs, or collected aud allowed to stand in tanks of these materials, there is always found, besides the substances above enumerated, a minute but variable quantity of zinc. When the collecting tank is zinc or zinc iron, the proportion of zinc to the gallon of water will necessarily vary very much, and when such tanks have been low for a long time in a dry season, the water remaining in them may become so charged with zinc as to acquire very active medicinal properties, which are in the first instance tonic, but with after effects that are injurious to the nervous system. In rain water collected in tanks, however, the organic matter is very uncertain in its origin, for there is no conceivable substance — animal or vegetable — which may not, after n long continuance of dry weather, be raised as dust, and lodged on the house tops. The results obtained disclose this fully, and show that no water collected within the crowded parts of the city, either from well or house-tops, is safe or proper for human con» sumption. There is one branch of the subject which is beyond the province of chemistry, but which is even more important than any of the foregoing, and that is the misery and suffering entailed, especially on the children, in a city that is badly supplied with water, from the prevalence of intestinal worms. The connection between a defective water supply, and the prevalence of this disease, may not be established as cause and effect, but their constant association is undoubted, and there are no means found to be so effectual in Wellington as an ample supply of wholesome water.? "