View report page

17
Several Branch Sewers in Sclater, Anchor, and York
Streets have enhanced considerably the Sanitary Defences
of the year.
Steps have been taken to obviate the nuisances of certain
offensive trades : such as Fish Caring, Frying and Smoking,
Boiling of Oil, Heaping of Tan, and Boiling of Decomposed
Meat.
The enormous mounds of Rubbish and Dust in Mr. Newman's
yard, in Tyssen Street, have, by the Magistrate's
order, been reduced in bulk and height; certain Lucifer
Works have been improved; Pig Keeping, wherever possible,
has been prevented; and the Slaughter Houses have
been supervised.
Ventilation has been put in force, and overcrowding
stopped; the latter especially in one case, where a woman
died from exhaustion after her confinement "in a room
where 9 others slept."
Many other appliances in trapping and improving drains,
in abolishing cesspools and erecting closet apparatus, in
establishing sewer communications, and rendering homes
more healthy, have aided the advantages heretofore obtained.
Their figures, which I owe to the kindness of the Surveyor
and Inspector, constitute the last Table of this Report.
The Summary of the foregoing shows, that in 1860 the
quota of the Epidemics and Consumption declined; that the
mortality was smaller and the waste of life less. This "lowness
of mortality" and diminution of disease may doubtless
be increased, "if only the removable evils be removed, if
only the practicable good be made practical." It is related,
that in the Scottish Isle of St. Kilda, where refuse in thrown
on the floors and trodden down under foot, "8 out of every
10 children die between the 8th and 12th days of their
existence." They die from breathing foul air, for the refuse