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floors laid, and altogether the place made better than it
ever has been, and as little unhealthy as such a swampy
residence can ever be expected to be.
The moral of the story, as regards the public health
and the influence of sewers thereupon, is not unimportant.
If, as was the case here, a sewer can be in such a state of
accumulated filth, that the heaviest deluge of waters does
but stir without cleansing it, and so that many men
need be employed for many days afterwards in removing
the said accumulated filth, as they were in that sewer
under No. 102, Piccadilly, we naturally ask, where do the
gases of this decomposing matter escape to ? What effect
have they on the people who live over them in ignorance?
And supposing the Main Drainage scheme to be successful
in purifying the Thames, shall we be delivered from
these and the like evils existing under houses ? *
Graham Street, Pimlico, No. 35. An offensive gully
opposite. The gully has been trapped.
Spring Garden Place, No. 4. The closet was choked up.
A notice was served on May 5,1859, since when the closet
and drains have been cleansed, and the nuisance abated.
Eaton Square, No. 104. Fetid gases, causing illness
in the house, which a nobleman had recently
taken furnished. They emanated from a perforation in
the trap of the closet on the drawing-room floor, and
a quantity of matter in the brick drains, which were
penetrated with rat-holes. A similar nuisance had
existed here last year, when.it was attributed to the
Thames. The servants' closet in the front area offensive,
damp, and badly ventilated. A notice was served on
March 26. The drains have been properly cleansed and
* See page 22 for an account of the flood at Knightsbridge and
Commercial Road South.