At this time (1843) Boston numbered about 100,000 inhabitants, and was dependent for water upon cisterns and wells.  The supply of water in the wells had been steadily diminishing for years, and what remained was necessarily subject to contamination from numberless sources.  “One specimen which I analyzed,” said Dr. Jackson, “which gave three per cent, of animal and vegetable putrescent matter, was publicly sold as a mineral water; it was believed that water having such a remarkable fetid odor and nauseous taste, could be no other than that of a sulphur spring; but its medicinal powers vanished with the discovery that the spring arose from a neighboring drain.”  Here was a golden opportunity.  Eddy proposed to abandon the canal as a means of transportation, and convert it into an aqueduct for supplying the City of Boston with wholesome water.  The sections between the Merrimac and Concord at one extremity, and Charlestown mill-pond and Woburn at the other, were to be wholly discontinued.  Flowing along the open channel of the canal from the Concord river to Horn-pond locks in Woburn, from thence it was to be conducted in iron pipes to a reservoir upon Mount Benedict in Charlestown, a hill eighty feet above the sea-level.

The good quality of the Concord-river water was vouched for by the “analysis of four able and practical chemists, Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston; John W. Webster, of Cambridge University; S.L.  Dana, of Lowell, and A.A.  Hayes, Esq., of the chemical works at Roxbury.”  The various legal questions involved were submitted to the Hon. Jeremiah Mason, who gave an opinion, dated Dec. 21, 1842, favorable to the project.  The form for an act of incorporation was drawn up; and a pamphlet was published, in 1843, by Caleb Eddy, entitled an “Historical sketch of the Middlesex Canal, with remarks for the consideration of the Proprietors,” setting forth the new scheme in glowing colors.

But despite the feasibility of the plan proposed, and the energy with which it was pushed, the agitation came to naught; and Eddy, despairing of the future, resigned his position as agent in 1845.  Among the directors during these later years were Ebenezer Chadwick, Wm. Appleton, Wm. Sturgis, Charles F. Adams, A.A.  Lawrence, and Abbott Lawrence; but no business ability could long avert the catastrophe.  Stock fell to $150, and finally the canal was discontinued, according to Amory’s Life of Sullivan, in 1846.  It would seem, however, that a revival of business was deemed within the range of possibilities, for in conveyances made in 1852 the company reserved the right to use the land “for canalling purposes”; and the directors annually went through with the form of electing an agent and collector as late as 1853.

“Its vocation gone, and valueless for any other service,” says Amory, “the canal property was sold for $130,000.  After the final dividends, little more than the original assessments had been returned to the stockholders.”  Oct. 3, 1859, the Supreme Court issued a decree, declaring that the proprietors had “forfeited all their franchises and privileges, by reason of non-feasance, non-user, misfeasance and neglect.”  Thus was the corporation forever extinguished.