View report page

5
Our rateable value of property is nearly £226,000, and the average
annual value of each house is about £45. The entire parish is said
to be about eight miles in circumference, to contain sixty miles of
road, and one hundred and thirty miles of paths.
Our Geological condition is much the same as that of the surrounding
parishes; the soil, for the most part, is a dark rich loam, beneath
which are strata of fine gravel, of different degrees of firmness,
mixed with large quantities of sand; in the Notting-hill district,
we have a large bed of stiff clay replacing this sand; below it, is the
continuation of that immense bed of clay which runs under the
whole metropolis, called—the blue London clay.
The fact of so large a quantity of sand forming the sub-soil of a great
portion of the district is of much importance in a sanitary point
of view, as it tends to prevent the accumulation of water on the surface;
but it may at the same time lead to the contamination of our
superficial wells, by introducing organic matter, unless means be
taken to prevent it; for in all populous neighbourhoods, particularly
where refuse matter in a decomposing state is allowed to accumulate,
the surface waters, holding in solution organic matter,
rapidly find their way into wells, and render their contents unfit for
drinking puposes, if not poisonous.
ELEVATION.
The Elevation of a district above high water mark appears to
exercise much influence on the mortality from certain diseases, more
especially from cholera and diarrhsea:—thus, the mortality from
cholera in those districts situated below high water mark was at the
rate of upwards of 100 per myriad; those from 20 to 30 feet above
high water, from 16 to 50 per myriad; whilst at the height of 80 feet
and upwards the mortality was as low as 2 in the same number.
It cannot be laid down as a rule that the mortality from this
disease is in an inverse ratio to the height above high water mark;
but we may fairly expect that where the elevation is slight, cholera
and zymotic diseases will be found much more rife, and the deathTate
higher.
The following observations result from an examination of the