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accidents would be of daily occurrence rather than at intervals
measured by years. Although not a matter of actual
demonstration, it is a probable inference that in all cases
where men are overcome by the lethal atmosphere of sewers,
there is another factor at work besides that of ordinary sewer
air, and in several instances where a thorough investigation
has been made, the accident has been found attributable to
the presence in the sewer of dangerous chemical compounds,
which have reached its channel through drains from places
where chemicals are used in the process of manufacture or
refinery.
Under existing conditions of the law, the discharge of
dangerous chemical compounds into the sewer is a punishable
offence. In the consideration of the circumstances attending
the deaths of Baker and Garrod, whose lives were lost in the
accident in Broadwall sewer, the particulars of which are here
detailed, the fact should be kept in mind that this protective
provision was made law not before the catastrophe had taken
place, but afterwards.
The accident of May 4th, resulting in the death of Baker
and Garrod, took place in a section of Broadwall Sewer that
lies between Commercial Road and Stamford Street. Built
of brickwork, this sewer forms a capacious barrel measuring
4 ft. in its vertical and 2½ to 3 ft. in its horizontal diameter.
The period of its construction dates back to the early years
of the century, when the undivided control of sewers in the
Metropolis was vested in the hands of Commissioners.
Broadwall Sewer was originally an open ditch which constituted
the boundary of the two parishes of Christ Church,
Southwark, and St. Mary's, Lambeth, and both before and
after it was covered in, it was used in common for the
drainage of the houses in both parishes bordering on the
Sewer. Some few years ago the Authorities of Christ Church