View report page

19
chiefly represented by residents of TSethnal Green, and of which the
Rev. S. Hansard was president), a searching inquiry was instituted which
was conducted by Captain Tyler, and the whole of the East London Water
Works examined. On a cold Sunday in February of this year (1867), I
was present with about thirty scientific gentlemen, when the Old Ford
reservoir was nearly (by the order of Captain Tyler it should have been
quite) emptied. In order to prosecute the examination, we had to wado
in it in long boots, and found impure water oozing into it from various
places. It further appeared the reservoir had not been eleansed since its
construction in 1855, so it is quite evident that the water drawn from it
could not have been of the purest kind. The Company have since been
advised by Captain Tyler to close this reservoir. This is a step in the right
direction; for whatever is done to obtain the 100,000,000 gallons of water
required for daily use in London, it must not be drawn from its present
polluted sources, and whether we have to go to Scotland, Wales, or tho
Lakes of Cumberland, the supply must be constant, and not as it is as present ,
intermittent. I trust indeed that the day will come (though I may not
live to see it), when all water reccptacles will be abolished, except
those holding water for the purpose of flushing closets.
Bad drainage is another means by which Cholera is propagated. A
circumstance however, which presented itself to my observation during the
late epidemic, shews that, under the worst conditions, in this respect, some
localities escape. When, during the existence of the epidemic, the drainage
in White Street and Swan Street was being altered by the Metropolitan
Board of Works, and the old drain was being taken up, the pipes and
bricks of which it was composed, impregnated with soil, and emitting a
most offensive effluvium, were thrown carelessly about; and, despite
all I could do, I could not get them disinfected. The work was stopped
for a time, but this remedy was worse than the evil, for the sewer being
left uncovered, the exhalations became more offensive than before ; and
when the work was resumed, no means were taken to prevent the
nuisance. The Board of Works being written to on tho subject, a
gentleman was sent to inquire into the matter. Together we waited
upon the contractor, expostulated with him, and pointed out the
danger arising from the continued neglect ol sanitary precautions; when
he promised to carry out such suggestions as we had to make. Notwithstanding
this, the only thing done was to scatter disinfecting powder over
offensive matter when brought to the surface, and that in quite insufficient
quantities. Had Cholera decimated the streets and neighbourhood