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17
2. Water.—The facts and considerations submitted in this report relative to the
water-supply point to the following conclusions:—first, the common pumps should be
abandoned as sources of water for drinking, and culinary purposes; steps should be
taken to make its unfitness known to those in the habit of using the water from this
source. Secondly, it is important to draw the water from them for the purpose of
draining the soil; the water may be usefully applied to the watering of the roads in
summer, and for various purposes of cleansing and trades. Thirdly, the abandonment
of the pumps, and the great deficiency of water in many localities occupied by the
poor, call imperatively for a great extension of the supply afforded by the Water Companies.
In the case of stand-pipes supplying courts and batches of houses, it must be
remembered that even houses of four rooms generally contain twenty or more inhabitants.
Ten such houses, no uncommon number to one stand-pipe, will probably hold
200 people. It is obvious that a small pipe running for fifteen or even thirty minutes,
six days in the week, must utterly fail to supply enough water for the drinking, cooking,
washing, and house cleansing of such a population. Instead of simply increasing the time
during which the water is turned on, it would, I believe, be better to turn it on twice
a day. This plan would greatly obviate the necessity of storing water in pails, pans,
jugs, or other receptacles in confined dwellings. I submit this, not as a complete
remedy, but as a temporary relief pending the introduction of the system of constant
supply. From what I have witnessed as to the waste of water occurring from the
absence of cocks to many of the common stand-pipes, and the pipes in the back yards
of the poorer tenements, I am persuaded that even less water would be consumed if the
water was turned on twice a day, if, at the same time, the pipes were properly fitted
with cocks. The common plan I have observed is, to leave the water to flow as long
as it is turned on : when the tub, if there be one, is full, the overflow is allowed to run
over into the yard, whence, if the drain is permeable, part flows into the privy or cesspool.
As no water is laid on to the privy, the theory is, that the surplus water thus
discharged washes down the soil;—the practice is, that it is simply stirred up, set fermenting,
and rendered a more active nuisance than if no water had been supplied. In
addition to this, the back yards, mostly ill-paved, are kept wet and unwholesome.
3. Air Supply.—It is even more important to have a constant supply of air, than
a constant supply of water. Stagnant polluted air is the most immediate cause in the
production of low fevers. One great reason why these fevers lurk in blind alleys and
ads-de-sac, is this stagnation of the air. I entertain a strong opinion that could we
insure a continuous current of wind through even some of our worst localities and
houses, fevers might be literally blown away. I would earnestly press the importance
of taking every opportunity of piercing these places, and carrying a thorough commu-