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in close proximity to dwellings are:—(1) That being below ground and storing
wet refuse, they are the counterpart of cesspools; (2) That the tops being either
level with the ground, or below it, or uncovered, rain and surface drainage flow in,
and they become cesspits; (3) That they cannot be drained, because the drain
inlets must be at the bottom, and the first castings of manure or other refuse block
the inlets and prevent the liquids draining away.
The bottom of a manure bin should be slightly above the level of the adjoining
ground and so sloped as to drain towards the front or side, through which there
should be an opening or openings at ground level to permit the liquids to drain
out and away to a properly trapped gulley. Falling rain is best warded off by a
fixed roof, a covering several feet above the top of the bin, this allows the free
play of air, and the refuse may be readily cast in and removed. Hinged and other
forms of movable covers, being cumbersome, more frequently remain open than
closed, and when conscientiously used, are not permanent, for constant rough
usage soon unhinges or destroys them.
Sunken ash-pits are even more objectionable than sunken manure-pits. Your
Health Committee had the opportunity of seeing the condition that such receptacles
present at the blocks of dwellings in Duke's road, and ordered their abolition
accordingly.
Hitherto the guiding principle in the temporary storage of manure, ashes, and
other refuse, seems to have been that of getting the refuse most easily and most
readily into the receptacle, whereas the guide to construction should be the ease
and readiness with which it may be got out of the receptacle and removed.
Smoke.—By Section 33 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, it is provided
that every furnace employed in the working of engines by steam, and every
furnace employed in any public bath or wash-house, or in any mill, factory,
printing-house, dye-house, iron foundry, glass-house, distiller}', brew-house, sugar
refinery, bakehouse, gasworks, waterworks or other buildings used for the purpose
of trade or manufacture (although a steam engine be not used or employed therein),
shall be constructed so as to consume or burn the smoke arising from such
furnace. If any person, being the owner or occupier of the premises, or being a
foreman or other person employed by such owner or occupier, uses any such furnace
which is not constructed so as to consume or burn the smoke arising therefrom ; or
so negligently uses any such furnace as that the smoke arising therefrom is not
effectually consumed or burnt; or carries on any trade or business which occasions
any noxious or offensive effluvia, or otherwise annoys the neighbourhood or inhabitants,
without using the best practicable means for preventing or counteracting
such effluvia or other annoyance, such person shall be liable to a fine not exceeding
five pounds, and on a second conviction to a fine of ten pounds, and on each subsequent
conviction to a fine double the amount of the fine imposed on the last
preceding conviction. In this section the words " consume or burn the smoke,"
shall not be held in all cases to mean "consume or burn all the smoke," and the
Court hearing an information against a person may remit the fine if of opinion
that such person has so constructed his furnace as to consume or burn as far as
possible all the smoke arising from such furnace, and has carefully attended to the
same, and consumed or burned as far as possible the smoke arising from such
furnace. It shall be the duty of every Sanitary Authority to enforce the provisions
of this section, and an information shall not be laid for the recovery of any fine