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8
I am at last enabled to record the final discontinuance
of the mistaken practice of burying the dead in
the midst of the living: last year the Church-yard of
Haggerstone Church which had been used as a burial
place for the parish poor was closed. During the quarter
just expired, the last church in the parish, in which
the practice had lingered, has been closed against vaultinterments,
under an order from the Secretary of State.
For an indefinite time to come, the slow decomposition
of the bodies already deposited in our intramural graveyards
and under our churches, must continue to give
forth miasmata more or less prejudicial. It is at least
satisfactory to know that no fresh material being added
the evil may be expected gradually to decline.
I regret to say that the water supplied by the New
River Company has not yet attained that degree of
purity which is essential to health, and which alone
ought to satisfy the public. It is largely contaminated
with organic matter. The water of the East London
Company is comparatively pure. The restrictions in
the mode of supply persisted in by the Companies operate
as a serious impediment to sanitary progress.
Amongst the most important sanitary operations
of the quarter, is the closure of Bull-court. The condition
of this place as the constant nursery and abode of
fever, and factory of pauperism, had early attracted my
attention. It seemed incapable of material improvement.
When the inhabitants were first enumerated in
August last by Mr. Ditchman, they numbered 146, in