View report page

3
Report of the Medical Officer of Health, for the second Quarter, 1857.
time. It is the highest humanity to quicken the progress. Vestries have power, under the Local Management
and Disease Prevention Acts, sufficient for the purpose; and such acts as these, in my humble
opinion, ought to be done by Vestries; and not by extending the powers of the police, as in the recent bill
was attempted. But the need is so great, so undoubted by those who have seen the evils with their own
eyes; and the benefit to be obtained so certain; that if local authorities do not enforce the improvements,
the police will have to do it, and we shall have ourselves to thank for throwing the duty upon them.
We have had but four deaths from scarlatina; but of these four, in the opinion of every one
concerned, two became malignant and fatal from the house being filled with privy stench in hot weather.
The work was promptly done—too late to save the children, but not too late to warn us of the fatal
character of sulphuretted hydrogen and like gases, that are the components of privy stenches. As to the
overcrowding, I have brought many cases before you, in each my attention has been called on account of
illness resulting; difficult of cure, and constantly reeurringr. "I can never get out of that house," said
the district surgeon of one of them. The eight rooms of this house were always full, the receipts £2 2s.
per week; yet it was dirty, neglected, and overcrowded. So the poor live, and, I may say, so they die.
As to some manufactories, the more offensive should no doubt be compelled to improve.
Some of them are very bad, and their pernicious influence spreads widely. I do not think any manufacturer
should be obliged to leave; trades must be, of course, protected; but one man must not, to
save a little expense in his building and machinery, be allowed to poison a neighbourhood containing, as
this does, some thirty thousand people. There are various ways of making almost all of them bearable.
One of the most practical men of the day says of one plan, "It has been applied in order to get rid of
the offensive effluvia arising from the coppers of the soap-boilers, tallow-melters, and similar occupations,
which often become a nuisance to a whole neighbourhood." He further states, "that it was said
to have answered perfectly;" so that a factory which was formerly most offensive, became entirely free
from offensive odours. I believe where the apparatus is inapplicable, as in bone lofts, cat-gut manufactories,
and the like very offensive trades, there appears to be no way but completely enclosing such
premises, providing inlets for fresh air below, and with outvents only through tall shafts; the offensive air
to be forced through these shafts by blowers, to be depurated in its passage by fire or chemical agency.
Lastly, as to ventilating sewers, I think no more gullies should be trapped, unless a sufficient
vent be applied elsewhere. Clearly we must not close the vents in objectionable places, unless we open
enough in unobjectionable places. The evils will be—the forcing back the foul gases into houses, and
rendering sewers dangerous to workmen. I have spoken of cross roads, or places where four or more
ways meet, as apparently the least objectionable: one such I see is now laid down in White-street, and I
therefore suppose the principle is recognised. On this side the river, the caution is especially necessary,
as 16 hours out of the 24, the sewers have no flow, and consequently become overcharged. Seven or
eight men have lately lost their lives from foul sewers. The verdict of the jury in the Wapping case
was, "That the four men were suffocated by the noxious gases and mephitic air of the sewer." In
the Whitechapel-road case, last week, three men were killed—verdict "That they died from the noxious
and mephitic vapours emitted from a sewer." The gas was principally sulphuretted hydrogen, and it is
powerful enough to cause instant death. One of the principal witnesses in the case stated that no doubt
"measures might have been adopted to prevent the deaths of the three persons by better ventilation."
Upon these grounds, and upon the fact that in many parts of this parish, regurgitation of these very
gases takes place into houses, I beg to urge the question of ventilation of our sewers in every
possible and unobjectionable place, but especially where thoroughfares meet; and to advise that no
more external guliies be stopped,
(Signed) WILLIAM RENDLE.