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calculated to deteriorate the health of the neighbourhood, and promote
the progress of disease.
In consequence, however, of the singular carelessness or inattention
of the officer, on whom the duty of serving the legal notices devolved,
the subject was adjourned till Thursday next, the summonses having
been by him delivered at Hand and Marigold Court, Star Corner, instead
of the place indicated in the order of this Board.
The complaint against Mr. Humphrey for not supplying "privy
accommodation" for the numerous work people on his premises was
investigated by the Magistrate, and at the request of the party appearing
for Mr. Humphrey was adjourned to give that gentleman an
opportunity of consulting with your surveyor, in order that public
decency and propriety henceforth might be preserved, and the orders of
the Vestry complied with.
Accompanied by your Inspector of Nuisances, I have visited and
examined the houses in William Street, where fever of a low type has
lately prevailed, and in some few cases proved fatal. Although the
privies are panned and trapped, there is evident in the houses, more or
less, a decided taint or sewer smell. Some of the people complain
much of this, and the children almost without exception look pale,
feeble, and out of health, several still suffering from low remittent
fever. The sink stones are generally untrapped, and I was informed
that when the alteration took place in the privies, in some instances,
holes were dug in the back yards, into which the contents of the cesspools
were emptied. Free communication, however, appears to exist
in every instance with the sewer, but it is very evident that as
the drains pass through several of the houses, and as at frequent;
intervals a most offensive and sickening effluvium escapes by the
untrapped sinkstones and from other sources, that a necessity exists
for a searching investigation and the adoption of more effectual precautions
for preservation from sickness by the exlusion of poisonous
sewer emanations from the dwellings in this street, tenanted as they
are principally by our industrious classes employed in the neighbouring
factories. In this, as in almost every other case, the children show
most vividly the effect of impure air. They are deficient in vital
stamina and healthy development, and are absolutely unequal to resist
the influence of epidemic disease. In Hargrave Square, close to the
above street, a most vicious arrangement exists, viz,, four privies constructed
together in a block, open, and in contiguity with a sewer;
they are foul smelling places, and injurious to health.
In Brook-street adjoining, the inhabitants also complain of a most
sickening and offensive smell from the drains, and at No. 8 the yard
was overflowed with sewage and soil, in consequence of some defect or
stoppage.
At 1 and 2, Queen Street, there are overflowing open cesspools and dilapidated
privies, which I certify. It is most desirable that prompt
measures should bo taken in this district to carry out sanitary improvements,
as I repeat, that looking to the physical condition of a considerable
proportion of the population, they are ill-calculated to resist diseases in
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