ADDITIONAL NOTES ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. 233
present purpose, however, it is enough to note that he remarks
(pp. 200-1) that the ancient Romans used "pipes of lead, of wood,
or even of earthenware." Also that the leaden pipes "were not
cast tubular, as at present, but consisted of thin plates of lead
bent up into the form of a cylinder, and soldered along the edge."
We thus gather from our author, a man qualified to speak
with authority, that down to the year 1835 even our larger
towns were by no means necessarily supplied with waterworks.
And we may therefore confidently assume that our smaller
towns were then almost invariably devoid of them, apart from
the fact that none are mentioned as possessing any. We may
gather from Hydraulia that probably a chief reason for slow
progress in the spread of waterworks throughout the country lay
in the indifference of their advocates to the appearance of the
water they supplied from the rivers, which must usually have
seemed inferior to that afforded by the shallow wells. On the other
hand, the possibility of sinking deep wells, with anything like
certainty as to satisfactory results, became evident only as a
knowledge of the geological structure of the country slowly
progressed. And this knowledge was but in its infancy in 1835.
The author of Hydraulia makes many remarks on the purity
of water and its filtration. When speaking of the Lambeth
Company's supply from the Thames, and its liability to
be rendered turbid by mud and other matters, he adds :—
" Though turbid water be offensive to the sight, experience has satisfactorily
proved that it is not injurious to health; nevertheless, perfectly clear and limpid
water being preferable for beverage, and indispensable for washing and various
other domestic purposes, all the water companies will probably adopt some
decisive means for purifying and rendering it thoroughly clean, so as to convey it
in that condition to the inhabitants. The period may not be far distant when the
inhabitants of this great and populous metropolis will perhaps have the advantage
of generally receiving filtered water for their chief domestic uses, successful
experiments having demonstrated its practicability. Besides the increasing taste
for cleanliness, other circumstances require that improvements shall adapt its
condition to the wants and habitudes of the age, and therefore its supply should
be as pure and transparent as its nature will admit"'
At the same time he evidently looks upon the mere desire
for "transparent" water as a beverage as a squeamish
weakness. He remarks (p. 324) :—
"When cattle go to a clear stream to allay their thirst they often abstain from
drinking till they have rendered the water turbid by stirring up the sediment with
3, From a note on p. 327 we learn—"In several recent Acts of Parliament for improving
•waterworks, a clause has been introduced to compel the supplying of filtered water."