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(1) That there is no relationship between the micro-organisms of sewer air
and sewage.
(2) That the micro-organisms in sewer air that is in the air in sewers coming
in contact with sewage and escaping from sewer ventilators are less in number
than in fresh air in the immediate neighbourhood, and that the germs were
apparently related to and derived from those of fresh air than from sewage.
(3) That sewage was not able to give off germs to the air in contact with it.
(4) In discussing the question of typhoid fever in its relation to sewage, the
conclusions arrived at were briefly that typhoid fever is chiefly conveyed by
water, milk, and sewage-polluted air, brought about by defective and badly
laid drains or leaking cesspools. The polluted soil becoming a breeding and
living place for germs that infect the subsoil air.
Intercepting traps on house-drains
I had occasion to report on the necessity of providing suitable traps on
house-drains in order to prevent pollution of air of houses by sewer air. In my
inspections of houses built before the institution of the Local Authority in your
district, I found houses directly connected with the sewers, the house-drains
consequently ventilating the sewers, but at the same time in an objectionable
manner, as in many cases I have reason to believe the drains are laid with clay
joints and on clay without concrete, the consequence being that where the drains
pass under houses the air of the house is polluted with sewer air, and sickness
must sooner or later attack the occupiers of the house. For this reason, then,
I reported to your Authority the need for intercepting traps on house-drains,
so as to prevent sewer air from passing direct from sewers into houess, and for
providing a current of fresh air to circulate in house-drains. Your bye-laws
passed in 1884 require "That there shall be a suitable trap provided at a point as
distant as may be practicable from such bunding, and as near as may be
practicable to the point at which such drain may be connected with such sewer
or other means of drainage." In every house these provisions of your bye-laws
should be carried out.
The necessity of covering site of a house with some impermeable
material, and the provision of damp-proof courses in order to render a
house fit for human habitation.
In the early part of the year, on inspecting some houses, it was found the
site, on which houses were built, was wet clay. In some of the houses the
joists were wet and rotten, and rested on the clav. The walls of the houses
showed signs of dampness, due to want of damp-proof course. I certified these
houses were unfit for human habitation, and could not be rendered healthy
unless the clay was excavated, and some four to six inches of cement concrete
placed beneath boards, leaving an air space, and providing a proper damp-proof
course. Your Authority issued the necessary notice under the Housing of the
Working Classes Act. The owner at first objected to allow an inspection to be
made. Your Council very properly took action before the Magistrates at
Highgate, where the case was ably argued by your Clerk, and your Authority
convinced the Magistrate after some trouble, and gained the important point of
the right of entry for the purposes of removing the flooring for inspection
beneath. On three separate occasions this case was brought before the
Magistrates. Eventually the owner agreed to do the work. There seemed to
be some doubt as to the power of requiring a site of a dewlling house to be
covered with some impervious material in order to make it healthy. There
appeared also a difficulty as to whether the Magistrates could be convinced that
it was necessary to cover a site with concrete in order to prevent dampness and
the passage of noxious vapours through the ground into the house. It is clear
the Housing of the Working Classes Act, Section 29 of which defines dwelling