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two great results of the experiment—the saving of life, and
the diminution of suffering.
Sanitation, &c.—Unusually great in amount, and of the
utmost importance in all its bearings upon the public
health of the Sub-district, has been the sanitary work accomplished
during the past year, and detailed in Table
IV. of the Appendix. The completion of 22,914 feet of
new sewers is alone an event of such significance as to
mark the year 1866 as one of great sanitary progress in this
parish. The special appointment of a Sanitary Inspector
during the prevalence of the epidemic, who was continued
for some time after its departure, it will be likewise seen,
led to the removal or abatement of a large number of
nuisances of various kinds, as well as to a most thorough
inspection of the parish. This Inspector, who performed
his task with great care and energy, has left in my hands
a valuable record of his labours in the shape of an abstract
of his official reports, which cannot fail of being of considerable
service to me in the future exercise of my
functions. In the abstract referred to, the one great sanitary
defect which appears to have manifested itself to this
Officer, as it had done frequently to myself before bis inspections
were commenced, was the indifferent water supply
in many localities. "No water to closet," "Closet and
pump in too close proximity," "Water from Well very
bad," are expressions that more frequently occur than
any others in the Inspector's notes and in my own reports,
and it is certain that danger will ever attend this condition
of things so long as the present system prevails, and the
supply of this great necessity of life, on the principle of
constant service, is withheld.*
*Many of the well waters of this parish are known to be singularly impure,
rendering a good supply from other sources a matter of great moment. The
analyses of some of these waters male by the late Dr. Dundas Thompson in
1854, and published along w ith several others in one of the Government Reports,
have been considered by several chemisls of note as exhibiting peculiarities
demanding great caution in their use. Dr. Phipson, the professor of chemistry,
thus writes to me on the subject.
"In the analyses of Putney well waters quoted in the valuable report on the
sanitary condition of the several parishes comprised in the Wandsw rth District
(1865), which I have read with much interest, the organic matter strikes me by its
high figure. This is a fact, however, but one w hich I cannot account for. It may