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cause the cart to follow the scavengers, and remove the refuse as
soon as swept together.
Another point connected with the removal of these surface
materials, I wish particularly to bring to your notice. It has been
the custom for a very long period, for the street refuse to be
deposited near the dwellings of the poor, in many already unhealthy
parts of the District.
One large accumulation has taken place at the bottom of Roanstreet,
Greenwich; another in that space of ground on either side
of the Railway, Deptford, extending through Knott-street to Mr.
Wheen's Soap Works; and others in various parts of the District,
too numerous to mention at present.
The effect of such large accumulations of filth must be to render
the already unhealthy parts much more liable to the influence of
disease; a constant fermentation takes place in these heaps of rubbish,
and as constant an evaporation is going on, particularly
during the hot season of the year, thereby diffusing unwholesome
smells and noxious gases through the surrounding atmosphere.
Mr. Hollingsworth, the Medical Officer of the West District of
the Parish of Greenwich, informs me that Fever is always
prevailing about Roan-street, Union-street, Church-fields, and all
the adjoining alleys and courts. The same prevails in other parts
near all those heaps of filth. I do not wish the Board to suppose
that Fever and the other diseases infesting these localities are
entirely dependent on these accumulations; but, undoubtedly, a
greater intensity is given to the symptoms in all cases occurring
within the range of such a polluted atmosphere.
Under these circumstances, I would advise that the street
refuse should be conveyed to some distant spot, where the product
of such large accumulations will not be injurious to the health of
the inhabitants.
It is possible that although every street and house shall be
properly and thoroughly drained, and to all appearance kept in as
good order as circumstances will admit of—it is even possible, I say,
that a small heap of such matter constantly heating and fermenting