When the city was enlarged by the annexation of the surrounding communes, in 1860, the municipal administration signed a contract with the _Compagnie générale des eaux_, which then held similar contracts with several of the communes both within and without the walls. By this, the city obtained the control, not only of its own water-supply and distribution, but also of that previously established by the company. The general management of the distribution is in the hands of the Compagnie, which collects the subscriptions, constructs branch pipes from the public conduits to the façade of the dwelling to be served, and turns the gross receipts into the municipal treasury, less its commission. To it, or to the _bureaux d'inspection_, all complaints are to be addressed. The purer _eaux de source_, brought by the aqueducts, are reserved for domestic use; the _eaux de rivière_, from the Seine and the Marne, are elevated to the altitude requisite to serve the higher quarters of the city by eleven _usines_, within and without the walls. The river-water is served by means of gauges and meters; the eau de source by meters only, which are officially examined and verified by the Municipal Laboratory, established in the Palais du Bardo, in the Pare Montsouris. This laboratory also analyzes this water, that of the drains, the sewers, and the wells, and reports to the municipal administration. With a view to the diffusion among the people of correct hygienic ideas, the Préfet 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.