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2 • Parish af Saint George the Martyr, Southwark.
banks"—this week 99 died in the south districts of Zymotic disease and 10 in this Parish.
July 17th "the sanitary state of the Dreadnought good"—this week 95 died in the south
districts of Zymotic disease, 11 of them in this Parish. July 31st "a case of fever, the second
only in 18 months on board the Dreadnought"—" General health of Custom-house staff good "—
this week 11'2 deaths from Zymotic disease in the south districts, of which 9 were in this Parish,
including the first in Cornbury Street. August 7th, "smells from cesspools south side of river,
described at present as most noxious"—deaths from Zymotic disease in the south districts 101 ;
15 of them in this Parish—the second death in Cornbury Street. August 14tli, " sanitary
condition of Dreadnought Hospital ship satisfactory"—this week 91 deaths, Zymotic disease,
south districts, 13 of them in this Parish, including 2 more in Cornbury Street. September 18th,
the last week in which a death occurred in this street, only one case of diarrhoea is recorded
among 1300 Custom-house officers about the Thames—Is not this proof enough, that at the
cesspool end of the sewers, pestilence occurs, and death; and that at the river end of the sewers
no very appreciable evil is produced; and there are these other facts : that cesspools are not only
close to the houses, but mostly the waste water and the contents of the drains run into them, and
daily stir them up: nothing is more common, than to hear " they smell dreadful when the water
comes on :" I have often reported it here, but the very enormity of the evil blunts our appreciation
of it. Again, these cesspools are not nearly so often emptied as they were ; those who are about
in the night tell me that the night-cart is not often used ; you yourselves see that some goes into
the sewers by the hose and pump: your perpetually agitated cesspool also runs off into the sewers,
that is into the Thames, how ? builders and owners of small property tell me of one of the vilest
contrivances which can possibly be brought near to houses ; viz., overflow pipes which keep this
mischief alive : this was the case in several houses where disease has most raged ; the refuse, after
being well stirred up near the houses, actually flows into the Thames ; but it produces death at
one end, in addition to a possible sickness at the other: happily, as I am informed, the owners in
Cornbury Street have themselves filled up the pits and remedied the evil. Now Manchester has been
put before you as an example of how well cesspools may be made to act, and I have no doubt the
presumed example of this spirited city, had something to do with your conclusion, that no more
cesspools should be abolished here, except upon appeal to the Vestry. Now cesspools ought to
work better there than here with the craving fields so near at hand ; but you will be surprised to
learn that the facts run quite the other way. The annual mortality in this Parish returned in the
Registrar-General's last report is 30 in 1000 living; in Manchester it is 33: we should lose 150
more by death every year if we were as unhealthy as Manchester: the cesspool system there, is
therefore (with other matters) not healthy; and apparently in consequence a private act paid for
by the Corporation of Manchester themselves, and which might fairly be called an act to
encourage the construction of water-closets in Manchester, was passed last session, encouraging
the formation of water-closets and empowering the Corporation to supply them with water and to
charge for it: to encourage it, the Corporation is in some matters not to charge beyond the
actual cost, and due check is provided against waste of water (a provision much wanted here), and
bad construction of pipes, &c., leading from water-closets.

This Table shows that we have for this quarter an absolute mortality from all causes higher
than any other, and a Zymotic mortality approached by Bermondsey, and more distantly by
Bethnal Green only—In four weeks the births did not equal the deaths, a most unusual thing,
in one they were equal. On the whole there have been only 48 births more than deaths—
131 worse than the average of the last five quarters.
The third Table shows the progress week by week of Zymotic and other disease, side by
side with the meteorological condition of this locality : measles was unusually fatal during the
first eight weeks—diarrhoea with some variation up to the last week—typhus at the beginning ana
end of the quarter—scarlet fever the last nine weeks. The existence of these epidemics, will
plead as an excuse for my troubling you at some length on this my only sufficientopportunity. Putrid
complaints are undoubtedly very fatal among us, and each week brings news of their progress
typhus does not abate ; sc irlet fever, measles, complications known as diphtheria, sore throat,
and the like, increase ; two cases of a very rare complaint, known as cancrum oris, of a still more