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34
DRAINAGE.
seems in his day to have had misgivings on this
subject; for, after describing the improvements that
had been effected there, and the gradual levelling and
heightening of the ground, he adds; "it seemeth
to me that if it be made level with the battlements
of the city wall, yet will it be little the dryer, such
was then the moorish nature of that ground."
From a consideration of this former geography
of the place, and from observation of the diseases
which prevail there, I am led to think it highly
probable, that some of its sanitary defects depend
less on defective house-drainage than on a still
marshy undrained condition of the ground itself, and
that these defects, including the liability to cholera,
would be removed by an efficient application of subsoil
drainage.
I would therefore respectfully recommend to you,
under this head, that the state of soil in the specified
districts be referred to competent authorities,
and that such measures be adopted as inquiry may
prove requisite, for relieving those parts where the
sub-soil drainage is imperfect, and for protecting
the house-foundations, and sewers, and sub-soil
adjacent to the river, from being soaked or flooded
by the tide.
2. With respect to house-drainage, I have no
addition to offer to those remarks which I submitted
to you in my last Report. Your Honourable Court
has fully recognised that immense peril to life which