LONDON WATER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TEl "SPECTATOR."]
Sin, —I have just witnessed so interesting a phenomenon that I can- not forbear sending you an account of it. I had heard that the water supplied to this part of the town was at present in an unusually filthy state, so it occurred to me to make the decanter convict itself ; for as you are probably aware, a globular decanter makes a very satisfactory lens. Accordingly, I took the one nearest to me on the dinner- table, and gazed into it. Any of your readers may try the same simple experiment. The decanter should, of course, be full ; the eye should be brought close to the glass, and the light should be so arranged that objects within the water may appear bright on a dark ground,—that is to say, the bottle should be between the eye and some shaded surface in one line, and between the lamp and the table-cloth in another. If they live under the dispensation of the same Company which supplies my house, they will see probably what I did,—viz., (1) a good many inanimate objects, apparently grains of dust, and such-like; (2), certain very animate objects, moving rapidly through the water, with a motion somewhat resembling that of a sole in an aquarium : " Suaves res, si non causas narrasset earum, et naturas,"—who shall we say,—Dr. Frankland, Mr. Simon, Pro- fessor Tyndall, and several others, I believe, who have interested themselves in the lower orders of organic life ? It may be said, Filter your water. Well, this had been twice filtered, once in the cistern, and again in the house. The first filter is, I believe, sup- plied by the Corgany. It must be remembered, moreover, that all filtration makes water disagreeable at the best, to those who know what good water is. We hear a good deal just now about the poisonous nature of alcohol, but really one would prefer to be slowly poisoned (and I have known cases in which the poisoning has been very slow, for I could name in my own family at least five alcohol-drinkers who have lived in apparently good health to beyond eighty years) by good wine, than to make one's body a receptacle for these bacteria, or whatever .they are, to say nothing of the " off-chance " of typhoid fever, scarlet-fever, and the rest of the zymotic part of the contents of Pandora's box.—I am, Sir, &c., A. J. B.
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