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7
SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS DURING THE YEAR.
15. I have thrown into a tabular form (Table VII.) a summary of the house improvements
effected under the orders of the Sanitary Committee and to the
satisfaction of the Inspectors, from the period of my last Report to the 25th of March,
1859. Nearly all these works were completed without the necessity of appealing to
the authority of the Police Magistrate. In addition, however, to the work thus
specified, I have to mention the abatement of overcrowding in several instances which
came under my notice, and concerning which I certified to the Sanitary Committee
that the amount of space allotted to each inhabitant was below that requisite for the
maintainance of health. At one house in the West. Sub-district, where a murder and
suicide occurred during the hot weather of June, the nuisance that arose was so intolerable
that the inspector was compelled to destroy the beds and bedding and to
superintend the cleansing and disinfecting of the house. It is unnecessary to specify
also the removal of a variety of noxious accumulations under the superintendence of
the Sanitary Inspectors, of which complaint has been made from time to time at the
offices.
16. The Slaughter-houses throughout the parish were visited in the month of September,
and, with but few exceptions, were found to be in a satisfactory condition.
The butchers, who kill upon their own premises, are now generally aware of what is
required of them for the preservation of cleanliness and the avoidance of nuisances in
their trade.
17. One of the most important works of the year has been the improvement of the
Vaults beneath the Parish Church. I mentioned in my last report that they had been
visited by Mr. Grainger from the Burial Acts Office, under the orders of the Home
Secretary. After several conferences between myself and that gentleman, and full
canvassing of the various plans that might be adopted, it was finally arranged that the
coffins should be placed in a single, and in some places in a double layer upon the
floor of the vaults; that they should then be covered with a layer of gravel to the
depth of eight inches, and that over this should be placed a layer of concrete four
inches in thickness. The private vaults were to be subjected to the same treatment
as the public ones. This plan was submitted to the Vicar and Churchwardens, and
having received their ready acquiescence, was made the subject of an order in council
on the 26th of February. A public notice to that effect was given and opportunity
afforded for the removal of any remains prior to the 26th of March. The arrangement,
however, was so completely consonant with the feelings of the friends of those who
were there deposited, that no notice of removal was received, and the work was
accordingly proceeded with by Mr. Pelling. Mr. Churchwarden Jenkin, who manifested
great interest in the proceeding, and myself visited the vaults daily and
sometimes twice a day, and although from the decayed state of the coffins and the
leakage from them of putrid fluids, the workmen were exposed to unquestionable
danger on several occasions, the precautions adopted and the free use of Macdougal's
disinfecting powder enabled the whole to be completed without a single casualty. In
some respects this was an experiment; it was this first work of the kind instituted in
the Metropolis under new powers vested in the Privy Council, and we were all
quite in the dark as to the manner in which the suggested improvement would be
received by the public. It was so successful as to constitute a precedent for similar
improvements which have since been carried out in other Metropolitan Churches.
18. An order in Council for the levelling and planting of Jones's Burial Ground,
in Church Street, has proved abortive from the absence of any power to enforce