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17
sheep; and another pork butcher, from the in-wards,
killed 40 or 50 pigs weekly. Besides the evils, in a sanitary
point of view, from this excess of business, the noise
occasioned by the animals was something terrific. Hitherto
it has been usual for the magistrates to grant licenses
unconditionally, but in consequence of the preceding case,
Dr. Aldis brought the subject before the magistrates, Mr.
Thrupp and Colonel Bagot, at the recent Petty Sessions,
when the former told two of the butchers that their
licenses were to be used only for private slaughtering.
Pump-water. It will be seen in the sequel (page 25),
that Dr. Aldis has condemned the water of two pumps at
Grosvenor Cottages, Eaton Terrace, as totally unfit for
drinking. This might form a plea, if needed, in favor of
the establishment of drinking fountains. There can
be no doubt that persons run considerable risk, especially
at certain seasons of the year, in swallowing water
from the London superficial wells. The owner of one
of those now alluded to, in order, no doubt, to avoid
paying water rates, caused a well to be dug in his garden,
quite close to a common privy with a cesspool, near to
which an underground tank for rain-water was placed. Altogether,
the cottage, the garden, &c., might have been considered
a snug arrangement. The mulberry-tree flourished
over the cesspool, and produced fruit abundantly; and the
more the adjoining well was contaminated, the more luxuriant
the tree became. Sanitary measures, however, were
introduced in the form of cleansing and filling up the
cesspool, and draining the premises. Old associations, no
doubt, were disturbed by such an innovation, more especially
when the mulberries ceased to appear, and it became
requisite to take care of health by condemning the pumpwater,
and introducing that from the Chelsea Company.
B