th a view to the diffusion among the people of correct
hygienic ideas, the Prefet of the Seine appointed, March 21, 1898, a
commission of savants, architects, and hygienists to draw up a series of
measures the most practical available for rendering dwelling-houses
healthful.

The general distribution is effected from the eighteen reservoirs fed by
these various sources; the eau de source is furnished on the public
streets by six hundred and seventy-three fountains established against
walls, etc., and by ninety-seven of the "Wallace fountains;" the water
of the Ourcq and of the rivers is furnished by thousands of _bouches
d'eau_, on the sidewalks, in the streets, etc., for service in case of
fire, watering the streets, the innumerable lavoirs, etc. The monumental
fountains, such as those of the Place de la Concorde and du Chatelet,
which play every day from ten in the morning to six in the afternoon,
are furnished by the canal de l'Ourcq, whilst that of the Trocadero and
its cascade, that of the Place d'Italie, and the luminous fountain of
the Champ de Mars, which function only on fete-days and Sundays, are
supplied by the Seine water. The fountains of the Luxembourg are fed by
the Arcueil aqueduct. The water-pipes throughout the city are generally
carried in the upper part of the egouts,--on curved shelves in the
smaller ones, and on upright stems carrying a curved holder in the
larger ones. In the grand _galerie du Boulevard Sebastopol_, for
example, the water of the Ourcq is carried on one side in an
eighty-centimetre main, and that of the Seine on the other in a main one
metre, ten, in diameter.

[Illustration: MUNICIPAL PARIS: POST OF THE OCTROI AT THE BARRIERE DE LA
CHAPELLE SAINT-DENIS.

After a drawing by G. Marechal.]

When the canal de l'Ourcq was first opened, the work was carried out
by a company to which was granted the right of navigation on the new
channel, connected with the Seine by the canals Saint-Martin and
Saint-Denis, but in 1876 the city of Paris repurchased this concession
from the canal company. A supply is also drawn from several important
artesian wells in different localities,--that of Grenelle, in the Place
de Breteuil, driven between 1833 and 1852, draws the water from a depth
of five hundred and forty-nine metres and elevates it to a height of
seventy-five. This supply is turned into that of the Ourcq. The artesian
well of the Butte aux Cailles, begun in 1863, was resumed in 1892 and is