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23
The observations of your Medical Officer of Health, as reported
by him in reference to the several occasions upon which he has
personally inspected the field, together with the impression arising
from the visit of your Committee on February 17th, and the personal
testimony of some of the members who have seen the field at other
times, and especially of one who has had constant opportunities of
observing its state for many months past, all tend strongly to confirm
this statement, as well as to verify the reports of your Inspectors
that they could find no sufficient cause for interference in respect to
the condition of the field upon the particular occasions mentioned in
the Schedule, and at other times when it has been seen and reported
upon by them to the same effect.
In consequence of the statements made by Mr. Soutter in the
Hollo-way Press of January 30th, 1875, in reference to this matter,
that gentleman was invited and attended your Committee when he
re-iterated the assertion he had made, "that the field has for months
"back been a focus of deadly miasma:" and he further stated "that
"when he wrote the letter referred to, at the latter end of January,
"the field was covered with house refuse, and that he had seen it
"covered with the most filthy stuff he ever saw. That it is now in a
"better state than it was when he wrote, and is almost entirely
"covered with clay, but is still dangerous to health in some parts
"near the Lennox Road, where a quantity of manure and also some
"vegetable refuse have been thrown out. That both the field and
"the road in front of Clifton Terrace are now as bad as they can
"be. That the field is not now so bad as it was or anything like in
"the same state, but that it is bad now; that he is certain sufficient
"precaution, up to the present moment, has not been taken; that it
"is only now that clay is deposited; that the present condition is not
"satisfactory, but that he should not have made a fuss about it if it
"had been as it is ; that the roadway of Clifton Terrace is in a very
"deplorable state, and that it is highly necessary that the road should
"be made before the hot weather comes. That in the months of
"December, January, and February especially, the field was in an
"awful state; that he was apprehensive of great mischief from the
"warm weather, when an epidemic would have been certain; that
"the condition of the field was then sufficient to give rise to typhoid
"fever, and that he had no reason to doubt that it was the cause of