A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK ON THE SUPPLY OF WATER AND CONSTRUCTION BY ALLAN GREENWELL, A.M.I.C.E. AND W. T. CURRY, A.M.I.C.E., F.G.S. Capio Yumen LONDON CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON 7 STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL 1896/8951. PREFACE BY G. C. GREENWELL, M.I.C.E., F.G.S. ONE of the greatest necessities of human life is an ample supply of wholesome water; and few objects are occasionally more difficult of attainment, not so much on account of any approach to impracticability as of certain hindrances to the mode of setting about it. The situation of individuals with respect to each other renders that combination of the constituent parts of society, which is necessary in order to bring about a general co-operation, very difficult to adjust. The supply of water enjoyed by one portion of the community may be sufficient both in quantity and in quality for all of its requirements; but the less happily circumstanced remainder may be dangerously near want. On the one hand, water is demanded, even though at the cost of the whole community; while on the other, such compulsion appears to be extremely unjust. We are thus, at the very outset of the question of coercive water supply, met by antagonisms, which most certainly have not as yet been reconciled, with the result that many desirable schemes have either been quashed in their incipience, or, if completed under pressure, have given rise to heartburnings which have been productive of anything but peace and goodwill. This early stage of the proceedings is, however, in the |