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13
For the information of the inhabitants of the district, I may mention thai
a General Complaint Book is kept at the office of the Board, No. 15, Great
Alie Street, and is open, during office-hours, to all persons who have complaints
to make respecting nuisances, the neglect of the scavengers, in not
properly cleansing the streets, or not removing the dust and refuse from private
houses, &c. All complaints are enquired into, and the localities visited by
your Inspectors, with as little delay as possible; and notices to remove any
nuisance are promptly served upon the owners of the premises where such
nuisance exists. If the nuisance be not removed within a given time, the
sanction of your Board is requested, to allow further proceedings to be taken.
The only sewer, which has as yet been constructed by order of your
Board, is in Little Prescott Street, of about 100 feet in length. This sewer
has afforded great relief to the inhabitants of Prescott Place, where there was
a large overflowing cesspool, which occasioned them great discomfort and ill
health. The owners of a few only of the houses in the vicinity, have availed
themselves of the advantages of this sewer, but those who have neglected so
to do, have had a notice from your Inspector to drain their houses into it. law;
every instance, where a new sewer is laid down by your Board, the law,
which compels the owner of every house situated within 100 feet, to drain
into it, should be strictly enforced.
Stone-ware is the material best adapted for the purpose of house drainage.
Earthen-ware is frequently used, but as it is porous, its use is objectionable.
Having, in the preceding remarks, briefly alluded to the subjects of
paving, drainage, overcrowding, and the existence of nuisances, in their relation
to public health, I now proceed to the consideration of the important question
of water supply. It is a well known fact, that the use of bad water is a
prolific source of disease: but if there be any persons who doubt the fact, I
will subjoin, in the form of notes, a few instances of the fatal effects of
drinking water from an impure source.* In consequence of the inhabitants
* Dr. Sutherland, in his Report on Epidemic Cholera (1855), says that "In a
street at Salford, containing 90 houses, 19 cases of cholera, and 25 deaths occurred among
the inhabitants of 30 of these houses, who used water from a well, into which a sewer had
leaked; while in the remaining 60 houses, which derived their water supply from purer
sources, there were 11 cases of diarrhoea, but neither cholera cases, nor deaths."
Mr. Grant, Surveyor to the late Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, in answer to
the question, whether he had met with cases of excessive mortality, which appeared due in
any manner to the nature of the water used by the sufferers, says that "During the prevalence
of Cholera, in 1849, he reported to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, two
remarkable cases of excessive mortality, which were, in his opinion, clearly traceable to the
contaminated water used by the inhabitants. The first case was. that of a court, called
Surrey Buildings, Thomas Street, Horsley Down, consisting of 13 houses, the backs of
which were towards Truscott's Court, of similar character and extent. In Surrey
Buildings, nine or ten persons died of cholera in a few days, and in Truscott's Court, not
one. In the first court, the people were supplied with water from a well, on a level with
the pavement, from which foul water drained into and polluted it; the other was supplied
with pure water. This was the only point in which the two courts differed, viz. the water-supply;
"and whilst in one court, one or two individuals died in every second house, in the other
the inhabitants remained safe." "The second case was that of Albion Terrace, Wandsworth
Road, which consisted of 17 houses of a superior class, in which some 25 to 30 persons died
in the course of 10 days. The terrace was supplied by a spring, which passed through
imperfect pipes and tanks, close to cesspools and drains. The water got contaminated after
a heavy shower of rain, in July, and that frightful mortality occurred among persons in