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23
WATER-SUPPLY.
thus are saved the necessity of waiting at a standcock,
but who still remain most insufficiently supplied
with water. Next in the scale of improvement
we find water-pipes laid on to the houses;
but the water is turned on only for a few hours in
the week, so that all who care to be adequately
supplied with it must be provided with very
spacious receptacles. Such receptacles are sometimes
provided: and in these (which are often of
the most objectionable description) water is retained
for the purposes of diet and washing, during
a period which varies from twenty-four to seventytwo
hours. One of the most important purposes
of a water supply seems almost wholly abandoned
—that, namely, of having a large quantity daily
devoted to cleanse and clear the house-drains and
sewers; and in many cases where a waste-pipe has
been conducted from the water-butt to the privy,
the arrangement is one which gives to the drainage
little advantage of water, while it communicates to
the water a well-marked flavour of drainage.
I consider the system of intermittent watersupply
to be radically bad ; not only because it is a
system of stint in what ought to be lavishly
bestowed, but also because of the necessity which
it creates that large and extensive receptacles
should be provided, and because of the liability to
contamination incurred by water which has to be
retained often during a considerable period. In
inspecting the courts and alleys of the City, one