View report page

15
repair of dilapidated and unwholesome houses. In several
parishes recourse had to be taken to legal proceedings in
carrying out necessary improvements. But it is satisfactory
to note that such appeals to force are year by year
decreasing in frequency; evidence, we hope, that the
public are accepting sanitary truths with a better grace
than heretofore, and lending a more willing hand in
bringing about the improvements which they suggest. A
point of some importance is urged in the Local
Summaries for Battersea regarding the control of the
Board and its Officers upon the internal drainage arrangements
of houses. It is highly desirable that extended
power should be procured in inspecting the appliances for
household drainage, and in enforcing necessary alterations.
In connection with this subject we would give a word of
warning to the public against the folly of having washing
and other apparatus in various parts of the house connected
with the sewer by means of waste pipes, as no amount of
trapping can ensure these from admitting, in certain
conditions of the atmosphere, most dangerous and noxious
gases into their apartments. For the same reason we
would also protest against the custom of connecting the
overflow pipe from cisterns with the sewer, especially when
the cistern is covered and there is no free access of air to
the surface of the water.
The Water Supply — In several of the Sub-districts,
particularly Battersea and Clapham, strong representations
have been made regarding the water supply. Some of the
complaints have been unnecessarily directed against the
Water Company; for it must ever be remembered, that
the source of our supply is the grand cause for dissatisfaction.
So long as our water is obtained from the Thames,
no company can supply water good enough for dietetic
purposes. It should also be remembered that cisterns, and
other receptacles for the daily supply, are attended with
many evils; and want of proper cleanliness is the source
of a very large number of the complaints raised against
the condition of the water. So far back as 1866, when