Page 298 - Reading Mercury

sewage into water courses which it is the duty of the sewer authority to protect from
pollution. The sewer authority should obtain a plan and estimate for a system of town
sewerage, by which, if possible all the sewage should be brought to one outfall, and
then purified before being discharged into running water.
There are many houses which have no connection with the existing drains. The
sewage from these is thrown into cesspools. The contents of some of the water closets
is also discharged into cesspools. It appears that some of these cesspools are emptied
out only once a year, and even then their contents are not removed for agricultural
purposes, but thrown into a sump within a few yards of the cesspool.
The subsoil is a free gravel and sand, can any system be conceived better calculated
to pollute the water below the surface? The drains, constructed 30 years ago are
almost certain to be open-jointed so that through them also the subsoil water is in all
probability polluted.

WATER SUPPLY
There is no public water supply. There is, however, an abundant supply from wells
in all parts of the town, with the exception of about 27 houses occupied by 100
persons, who are obliged to purchase water from the Emm Brook. One witness said
there were 280 wells within the town, and he knew of no town better supplied from
natural springs.
It is unnecessary, however, to make any further remarks on the quality of water at
command within the town, as its quality is so unquestionably abominable. I took four
th
samples of water when I visited Wokingham on the 16 January. Two of them from
wells which I expected to find were polluted (Nos. 67 and 25), one from a pump at the
Police-station at the Town Hall (No. 68), and one from Mr. Cooke’s garden (No. 66),
which I selected as the water least liable to pollution. Of these samples of water Dr.
Frankland reports that they all “are entirely unfit for human consumption, and, in the
interest of the health of Wokingham, all the wells supplying them ought to be closed
at once. Nos. 67, 25 and 68 might be used with advantage for the fertilization of land.
No. 25 is one of the worst waters I have ever met with; it has more than twice the
manure value of average London sewage.”
There were two privies used by 37 people, and a sump within 10 yards of the well
from which sample No. 25 was taken; there was also a privy for the children (111 in
number) attending a school within a very short distance. The first two mentioned
privies had not been cleaned out for more than a year, and when cleaned out the
contents were thrown into the sump close to them.
There was a sink and four privies very close to No. 67. There was a common water
closet close to the Police-station pump, from which sample 68 was taken. Mr.
Cooke’s pump is far from any houses, but one of the gentlemen present when the
sample was taken remarked that it was near the site of an old hedge and ditch which
used to be foul before Mr. Cooke enclosed his garden. The result of Dr. Frankland’s
analysis fully confirms the evidence of Mr. J.G. Barford, Professor of Chemistry at
Wellington College, who had tested several samples of water taken from wells in
different parts of the town. One sample contained 90 grains of solid matter in a gallon;
another 180 grains; a third 190 grains; a fourth 80 grains; a fifth 40 grains; a sixth 190
grains. With such evidence of the impurity of the water used in the town, it is not
surprising that in 1854 cholera was very severe in Wokingham, or that there have
been two serious outbreaks of typhoid fever since. Mr. Wright says that the cases
were scattered all over the town in 1870. The same cause, pollution of water by
sewage, produced the same effects everywhere. The fever was more severe among the

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