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requested to consult and make a joint Report at the next
meeting of the Deputation and Committee. A careful
investigation was instituted, not on the spot merely, but
throughout the whole course of the sewer from which
emanated so frequently the peculiar and offensive odour:
samples were taken, at intervals, of the fluid contained in the
sewer, and subjected to chemical test, particularly for
sulphuretted hydrogen. The result of the examination is
contained in the following Report.
Board op Works fob the Poplar District,
11. omlcy St. Leonard, May 6, 1858.
Gentlemen,
We, the undersigned, having examined at two separate periods,
samples of water taken from the Tower Hamlets' Cemetery, and five
others taken from various parts of the sewer, find abundant evidence of
sulphuretted hydrogen in the well water, and also, in a very diminished
degree, in the sample taken at the Moor's Arms, about 320 yards from the
Cemetery, after which all trace of it lost.
We are therefore unable to account for the evolution of the sulphuretted
hydrogen at the spots complained of, except on the assumption that gas
u-ater* is surreptitiously pumped into the sewer at night by the Great
Central Gas Company,—a supposition rendered extremely probable by the
fact that four inlets to the sewer within the Company's premises have been
detected by the Clerk of the Works to the Poplar District.
We have the honor to be, Gentlemen, your obedient servants,
THOMAS ANSELL, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health for Bow and Bromley.
SAMUEL K. ELLISON,
Medical Officer of Health for Poplar.
ALLAN CLELAND,
Medical Officer of Health for Limehouse.
3. H. FREEMAN,
Medical Officer of Health for Mile End Old Town.
* By gas water we mean that which is technically termed blue billy
water, which is more concentrated and stronger than when it has percolated
through the surrounding soil.