Hygiene of water and water supplies / by Patrick Hehir.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene of water and water supplies / by Patrick Hehir. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Works of water-supply have an ancient history in India. We have only to look at some of the mag- nificent old tanks that surround many of the larger towns to recognise, that the question of a sufi&cient supply of wholesome water formerly received no small share of attention. The devotees of past times constructed tanks, discovered springs, and made wells for the use of the people. Many of the large tanks seen scattered throughout India, although mainly used for purposes of irrigation, still form part of the water-supply to the people either directly or indirectly. In the Deccan there are to be seen the ruins of many excellent water works that were constructed during and after the Mahomedan con- quest. As the Mahomedan conquered a place, he converted it into a town, and wherever possible, instituted some form of public water-supply. In and around the City of Hyderabad may be seen the disintegrating ruins of water works of an extensive nature—bunds with tunnels, aqueducts and open conduits, and large reservoirs exist in several places, indicating that the water-supply in days gone by received considerably more attention than it has in more recent times. The high store placed on water has been handed down to some classes of the people of India, who revere, and even worship, certain rivers, springs and wells. Pilgrimages are regularly made by certain sects of Hindoos to various rivers, e.g. the Ganges at Hardwar and Gangootri, and at its junction with the Jumna at Allahabad. To such waters as these have been attributed supernatural virtues.' Yet we shall see that even such sacred rivers are in no way exempt from wholesale defilement.