View report page

13
been inefficient for years, and 27 yards of it, with very imperfect
fall, were choked with night-soil. So that these
houses, instead of effective drains, had nothing but an
elongated cesspool, which disposed of the sewage put into it,
as so many other imperfect drains do. That is to say, the
liquid part was let soak into the earth for the benefit of the
nearest pump: the solid remained in the drain, and the foetid
gases escaped into the dwelling, particularly at night. Strange
to say, a respectable man who knew of this state of the main
drain, and who lost a child from diphtheria soon after coming
into the house, never made any complaint of it to us, although
such an inquiry was in this case, and always is in others,
made personally after death from the like cause.*
2. Old drains kept when new ones are laid down.—This
is a matter of the most vital importance to all persons who
re-build houses on old sites, or who lay down new pipe-drains.
The old rotten drains and their connection with the sewer,
and all the earth around them, must be dug out and utterly
abolished; otherwise the new state of things will be worse
than the old. In the case of two houses in Green-street,
Park-lane, newly drained by pipes, one old brick drain full
of rat-holes was left. Of course this served as a channel
for sewer vapour, and till it was removed the houses continued
offensive.
3. The London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company's
Stable Yard, Wilton-road, Pimlico.—This was a nuisance of
a very dangerous character, owing to the non-removal of the
dung from the stable, which contained about 40 horses, and
to several water-closets draining into cesspools. There was
no proper drainage, and eight saw-pits filled with stagnant
water emitted a most offensive smell. The water in these
* See Quarterly Summary, No. XXV., page 15, for an account of
former proceedings with reference to this house.