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7
to be clone to make it what it ought to be. A very
instructive case may here be mentioned. Mr.-, of
4, York Buildings, as soon as he moved his family into
the house, found that the back rooms smelt offensively.
After a short time, several of his children fell ill with
low fever, one of them remaining for weeks in a very
precarious state. At first we imputed the smells to the
very probable cause of having a neighbour so dirty in
his habits that the whole basement of his house was a
general dust-hole—an accumulation of the rubbish and
filth of many years. Here was sufficient cause for unhealthy
exhalations; and in having these premises
cleansed, we hoped the cause of disease would be removed.
The fever, however, continued in Mr.-'s
family. At lengh we found that the drainage of this
block of houses passed under their yards, and close to
the back rooms. The attention of Mr. Burstall being
then directed to this strangely-placed sewer, an obstruction
was found, by which the contents of the sewer
were detained under Mr.-'s house, producing all the
evils of a cesspool. As soon as the sewer was cleansed
out and repaired, the fever disappeared. Innumerable
cases similar to this might be adduced, to show the
great danger of bad drainage, as well as the effluvia
from any decaying matter. I knew an instance where
fever lingered in a family a long time, until a hamper of
decaying onions being found in a remote cellar, the
disease ceased on their removal. If we would preserve
the health of our families, we must investigate every
smell, trace it to its cause, and remove that cause. This,
I admit, is, in many cases, difficult. There are many
such in our district where rooms, almost always at the
lower part of a house, are untenantable at times from
putrescent exhalations. I am inclined to impute most
of these to the old brick drains, many of which are so
nearly level as to be no better than elongated cesspools