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passages termed "holes in the walls," (as in Essex, Lisbon
Mount Streets, &c.) harbours all sorts of filth.
Drains and Sewers.
Unhappily our sewers are few, and as a consequence,
cesspools abound. "The cesspools now under our houses,"
says the Registrar-General, "will inflict more pains and destroy
more living than 10,000 mad dogs let loose in our
streets." Hence, until our highways and by-ways are properly
drained, Fever (which begins where sewerage ends)
will, ever and anon, decimate our ranks, and spread desolation
among our friends and our homes! In the last year alone
194 deaths from Typhus and Scarlatina, were the life price
that we paid.
How diseases and pauperism are reflected on us in Rates,
Dr. Farr thus illustrates:—"in Bethnal Green, a person
assessed to £100 a year, pays £13 12s. to the relief of the
poor; in St. George, Hanover Square, £2 8s. only."
Water Supply.
Our Water-supply, (derived from the Lea) has of late been
improved; being drawn from a purer source, and filtered
"through an extensive surface of sand." But every house
has not yet, as each should have, an independent supply;
nor are there in many places, taps to the pipes. Consequently
the cellars or yards become sodden and wet, the refuse decomposes,
and diffuses its gases among the dwellers around.
The ill-health depending on this cause alone forms a serious
item in the poor-rate account. Dr. R. D. Thomson's analysis
of the water of the East London Company shows, in eaeh
gallon, 1.940 grains of organic matter, 14.2 of hardness,
and 18.461 of total impurity.