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might be spreading Fever and disease amongst the unsuspecting
population. So soon as organic matter undergoes decomposition, so
soon does the Medical Man recognise the most fertile source for the
increase of diseases.
The formation of Ash-pits I consider to be one of your most
necessary provisions.
Those who are in the habit of visiting and entering the
dwellings of the poor must have remarked the unwholesome state of
those dwellings, arising from the quantity of refuse matter covering
the surface, not only of the little garden, the back yard, or small
premises attached to each house, but, in a very great number of
instances, this refuse is swept up into one corner of the sitting-room,
and there allowed to rot and ferment, thus becoming a most fertile
source of disease.
By providing Ash-pits indiscriminately, you will remove such
cause of disease. The Clergy who are members of your Board, I
am confident, can bear me out in the truth of these observations.
I find the Metropolis Local Management Act, Sect. 81,
provides, that all houses not having Ash-pits, shall be supplied
with such within a given period. To this clause I particularly
wish to draw your attention, and advise that a peremptory notice
be given to all persons to provide Ash-pits within a certain time;
and that, after each house shall have been provided with an Ash-pit,
an order be given to the Contractor, to empty such Ash-pits once in
every week, and that the Inspector be directed to enforce compliance
with this order.
I also advise that a notice be issued, prohibiting the practice of
throwing ashes, cabbage leaves, and other rubbish, into the streets;
thereby decreasing the amount of labour, and consequently decreasing
the expense and number of scavengers.
There are two other important points to be considered in
respect to the surface cleansing, viz.:—The laying down of hard
road materials on the different streets, and a general system of
paving the gutters in such streets. On going over the District, I
find that the streets in many parts are from 10 to 12 inches deep