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104 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
room, and the sewage from the two water closets. The liquids from
the bone boiling pans, and the tallow melting room are discharged
into a large subsiding tank or cesspool, so that any fat which exists in
the fluid may be removed. From this it is pumped into a manhole at
a higher level into which also the sewage from the water closets is
discharged, and then into the sewer in Trewint Street. The smell
from this liquid is most obnoxious and pungent and escapes at all the
ventilating openings in the neighbouring streets as well as at the
ventilating shafts which have been erected to take the place of the
ventilating openings in the streets. The effluvium is also smelt in
houses where there is no intercepting trap between the house drain
and the sewer, and this more especially if the drains are in any way
defective.
In 13 houses in the neighbourhood this has been complained of,
and, as a consequence, notices have been served for the abatement of
nuisance from defective drains in these houses.
The whole of the ventilating shafts and open gratings in the
street have now been closed with the exception of one at the foot
of Trewint Street, in which, at considerable expense to the Council,
a Reeves' ventilating apparatus has been fixed, which, so far, has had
the effect of abating the nuisance as far as that particular shaft is
concerned, and I am of opinion that the apparatus has a decided effect
on the whole of the sewer in Trewint Street.
r
Since the ventilating openings belonging to the Council have
been closed the effluvium has found its way into the main London
County Council sewer in Garratt Lane, and several complaints have
been received with reference to smell from the open gratings in that
thoroughfare.
These complaints have been referred to the London County
Council, who are, I understand, considering the advisability of taking
action under their General Powers Act of 1894.
In the proceedings taken in 1903 by this Council, I certified in
accordance with Section 21 of the Public Health (London) Act 1891,
that these premises were a nuisance, but I could not satisfy myself,
after a careful examination of the death returns, and the notifications
of cases of infectious diseases, especially Diphtheria, from the reports