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houses of Thorold Square, their site is undrained, unpaved,
aud low. In addition to the Pauper Sickness, there were
1118 New Cases of Illness attended by the Surgeons of Queen
Adelaide's Dispensary, and 18 by the Medical Officer of the
Guardian Society's Asylum, from April 1st, to December
31st, 1857.
3. Sanitary Progress.
Glancing retrospectively over the physical history of Bethnal
Green, it is interesting to note how much of its malarious
area has been reclaimed, and how pari passu its death rate
has decreased. Twenty years ago Dr. Southwood Smith
said of the Parish—"A large portion of Bethnal Green is a
swamp, hardly any part of which is drained.* In rainy weather
some entire streets are under water; and large collections
of stagnant water cover, summer and winter, considerable
spaces of ground in every part of the district." Happily,
most of the low swampy spots—as the sites of Waterloo Town
and Lamb Fields, and of Bunker's and Wellington Ponds—
have been filled up and drained; and cotemporaneously our
mortality has fallen from 1 death in every 32 living to 1 in 45.
Doubtless, other circumstances—as the demolition of certain
unhealthy streets for the Eastern Counties Railway, and the
removal of the Workhouse to a more salubrious place—have
contributed their quota to this happy result; but the main
element is, the amelioration of the marshy malarious air.
Much physical hazard is, therefore, removed; and theWorks
since executed under your auspices will, henceforth, enhance
the duration and value of life. In addition to the 5 Blocks
of Sewer6 completed in 1856, whereby 36 Highways and Byways
were drained, another Grand Block, providing for 18
other streets, was constructed in 1857. In the process of excavation
the rotten and dangerous state of the ground—
* The houses in Belvidere Place were built on the site of a swamp ; and, according
to Mr Welch, when the sewer was constructed there in 1853, it took the
whole strength of the workmen three days to bale out the water before they could
proceed with their work.