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39
The principal sanitary defects observed were defects
in house drains, and absence of, or insufficient dust-bins.
Of defective drainage nothing can be written too
strongly. There is far more danger in imperfectly-trapped
and badly-ventilated drains than in their entire absence;
and it is to be feared that from the want of proper traps
to house drains communicating with the main sewers, the
continued presence of Zymotic diseases amongst us is due.
This defect is almost universal from the fact that neither the
Board nor its officers on the one hand, nor the District
Surveyors on the other, have power to insist on this most
necessary precaution of effectually trapping every house
drain, so that a heavy rainfall or a slight disturbance of
atmospheric pressure may not convert our dwelling-houses
into ventilators of the sewers, as is now but too frequently
the case. An efficient system of ventilation of the main
sewers is a desideratum of great moment, and cannot be
much longer delayed. In every case where these defects
have been discovered, notices were at once served upon
the owners to remedy the same, and subsequent steps
taken to ascertain that the necessary works had been
executed. It is my pleasing duty to report that in no
case was it necessary to resort to legal measures of
compulsion.
My attention was directed to the dilapidated condition
of houses situated in Sleaford Street, and upon
inspection I found they were unfit for human habitation,
by reason of age and want of proper foundations. I
reported to this effect to the Board, and suggested that
the attention of the District Surveyor should be called to
these ruinous structures. This gentleman at once condemned
them, and they were pulled down.
A nuisance of a specially dangerous and revolting