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EXPERIMENTAL LEGZSU TION. 275
tried, h~ regards the middle 018~~88, in some newly-built
Wabsng-plMe, with full and special powers of sanitary regulation
to be granted it by Parliament, avowedly as an expetimerit.
At the aame time, a few large blocka of workmen’s
dwellings ought to be built and placed under experimental
sanitary laws. I am convinced that legislation must by
degrees be carried much further in this direction than is st
present the case, but it ought to proceed tentatively.
One of the difIicult questions of the present day is-How
can London be supplied with water ? There would bo few
engineering difficulties if it were allowable to separate tho
supply of pure water for drinking and cooking purposes from
the much larger quantities required for other purposes. Will
people drink the impure water ? Who can decide such a
question satisfactorily, except by experiment on a moderate
scale ? What could bo more absurd than to spend millions
upon procuring a separate supply of pure drinking water for
the population of London, and then findiug that tho population
would drink the irnpuro water? Many other like matters
must be referred to trial, but it is not the purpose of this
article to present a catalogue of experimental reforms, or to
follow the argument out into all the possible details.
I am well aware that social experiments must often bo
subjected to various difficulties, such aa the migration of
inhabitants, or even the intentional frustration of the experiment
by interested parties. I have heard it said that the
prohibition of liquor traffic could not be tried on a small scale,
because the publicans would be sure to combine to send liquor
into the area. If they did so, the fact could readily be put in
evidence, and if they can defeat the teetotalers in detail, I am
quite sure that they will defeat them upon any very great and
general measure like the Permissive Bill. As to migration of
inhabitants, it must be
provided against either by suitably
increasing the areas of experimental legislation, or eke by
collecting information as to the amount and probable effects of
the migration. But the main point of my theme is to prow
tht we cannot really plan out social reforms upon theoretical
gro~ds. General argument and information of all kinds may
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