View report page

20
thus having dealt a death-blow, it is to be hoped, to one
of the greatest sanitary evils in the district. The other
figures in the table will be found to shew corresponding
progress, and it must be a source of satisfaction to the
Board, to see that these and the other items of
procedure to which attention has been directed, are
keeping pace with the great sanitary requirements of
this populous and continually increasing suburb.
Notwithstanding the great improvements that have
been effected, there remain many sanitary defects
requiring to be remedied. Some of these, such as
imperfect scavengering, including the too infrequent
removal of house-refuse, the absence of paving and
surface drainage in the courts and alleys of the poor,
the introduction of noxious trades into the District, &c.,
can be more immediately dealt with; but there are
others more difficult of removal, such as the continual
nuisance and the danger to health arising from the
manner in which the sewers are ventilated at the
expense of aerial purity in the streets. In close association
with this great intrinsic defect of the main drainage
is the imperfection of the water supply, than which, of all
the sanitary evils requiring correction, there is none of
greater importance or more deserving, at the present
time, the serious consideration of the Board. For this
reason it is desirable to submit the following observations
on the subject:—
Water Supply.—This District still retains the
unenviable position which it has for so many years held
of being supplied with the most impure water of any
delivered to the whole Metropolis. "Of all the waters
"delivered in London," writes Dr. Erankland, in his
annual report on the subject for the year 1882," that