to be agitated during the year without any decisive action. Early in the ensuing year, January, 1831, Alderman Stevens, who seems to have followed up systematically, and perseveringly, the purpose of procuring a supply for the city, proposed the following resolution : Resolved, That the Counsel of the Board, prepare a memorial to the Legislature, set- ting forth the wants of the city, in relation to a full and ample supply of water, as neces- sary for the safety of the city against fire, and to be of a pure and wholesome quality, as necessary for the preservation of the health and lives of our fellow-citizens, and further setting forth, that the Manhattan Company, although chartered in the year 1799, for the express and apparently sole purpose of furnishing the city with these inestimable blessings, have not in the opinion of the Common Council, complied with the conditions of their charter, and stating, that under such circumstances, it has become necessary for the Cor- poration to do that which the Manhattan Company has failed to perform, and that the Common Council, finding that there exist powers in the acts relating to this Company, authorizing them to take by process of law, all streams of water, and to divert water courses from their natural channels, and also in like manner, to possess themselves of other property, which, however, the Manhattan Company have wholly failed to use, there- fore asking a repeal of the said powers now vested in said Company, and the vesting, exclusively, all such powers for the purpose aforesaid in the Corporation of the city of New York, and further enabling the Corporation to raise by loans, a sum not exceeding $2,000,000, for introducing an ample supply of pure and wholesome water. This was followed by a petition from numerous brewers, complaining of the impure and noxious qualities of the Manhattan water — of which this analysis, made in 1831, by the chemist, Chilton, furnishes abundant proof : ANALYSIS OF THE MANHATTAN WATER. The sample was obtained from the pump at the works before its entrance into the cistern, sp. gr. 1011. One wine quart was slowly evaporated to dryness. The dry mass weighed 31.45 equal to 125.80 of solid matter in the gallon, consisting of Muriate of Soda, Muriate of Magnesia, - Sulphate of Magnesia, Carbonate of Lime, with a little Carbonate of Magnesia, Sulphate of Lime, Extractive Matter, with Combined Water, 125.80 November 25, 1831. GEORGE CHILTON. 108 MEMOIROFTHE The quantity of foreign matter in the waters of the Bronx, and of Rye Pond, was, on an analysis by the same chemist, less than two grains ! On the 28th February, the resolutions of Alderman Stevens were debated and adopt- ed, except that which asked permission to raise two million of dollars — which was op- posed and lost. At the same meeting, Mr. Townsend presented a report from the Lyceum of Natural History, in New York, in answer to queries addressed to that Society, relative to the probable supply and quality of water which Manhattan Island might furnish. As a disposition then existed in some quarters, and perhaps even still lingers, to rely upon the water and wells of the island, the facts and reasonings of the Report (drawn Up, we believe, by Dr. Dekay,) cannot be uninteresting, however startling to the fastidious, some of the statements may appear. Of the Purity of the New York Waters. All waters, it is well known, which are not decidedly of a mineral character, are divided into two classes, hard and soft. With the latter we have nothing to do in the present communication, as none of it occurs in the thickly settled parts of the island. Hard waters are such as contain a sensible quantity of foreign ingredients, the chief of which are Garb, of Lime, Sulph. Lime, or (Plaster of Paris,) Mur. Sod. (or Common Salt,) Mur. Magnes, Iron, and extractive or animal and vegetable matter. We accordingly find that all the water in the city contains these, and occasionally other ingredients. For the following analysis of pump waters in various parts of the city, the Committee are indebt- ed to one of its members. When it is recollected that the hardest spring water seldom contains so much as one thousandth part of its weight of any foreign body in solution, it would seem that the term, mineral water, would be a more correct designation for the ordinary waters of this city. Results of analysis of various mineral and pump waters in the city of New- York, by George Chilton, chemist : No. 1. A pint of water yielded 10 grains of solid matter, consisting of Mur. Magnes. - " - 3 50 Mur. Sod. - 4 Sulph. Lime, - 0 25 Carb. Lime and Magnesia, 1