View report page

24
often repeated that sewers must be ventilated, and that it is better to
have the nose offended in the public highway than the health injured by
the escape of poisonous gases within houses. There is at present no
other alternative. It has been proposed that all the gullies should be
effectually trapped, and, no doubt, as they are situated so much nearer
houses than the ventilating shafts, it would be satisfactory to many
if this were done; but I doubt the prudence of such a step in the older
thoroughfares, when the ventilators are few in number and widely
separated. The gullies in those localities act as ventilators also, and if
all of them were trapped, and no additional ventilating shafts provided,
I fear the results would be disastrous; for wo might expect a large
increase in the number of cases of typhoid fever, a disease which was
fatal to 26 persons in 1872, and which is due to impurity of air or water
arising from untrapped or insufficiently trapped drains and waste pipes.
If the sewers are not freely ventilated in the streets, scarcely any house
drain traps can arrest the passage of sewer gases, which, as before stated,
are far more dangerous in houses than in the open air.
As usual, the complaints of non-removal of dust have been numerous,
and a large portion of the time of all three inspectors has been taken up
in attending to them. Considering the importance of the subject, and
the large amount of money paid for the work, it is a question whether
it would not be economical to appoint a special inspector to superintend
the execution of the contracts, if the Vestry cannot undertake the duty?
There can be no doubt that the neglect of dust bins, and the improper
use of them by the deposit of animal and vegetable refuse, is the cause
of a good deal of sickness, besides a much larger amount of lowered
health which pre-disposes the body to disease. I know nothing which
would give greater satisfaction to the parishioners at large than the
regular removal of the contents of their dust bins. This is the one
subject which brings me, and the sanitary staff generally, into the most
frequent communication with ratepayers—letters and calls from them,
and visits by the inspectors arising out of complaints, being far more
numerous than upon all other sanitary matters whatever. This is not
as it should be, and it really represents a large waste of sanitary labour
which might be usefully directed to other matters.
The tallow melting and candle factory in High-street, Kensington,
has been frequently inspected during the year, and has been a source of
less annoyance than in former years. However desirable it may be to
abolish such an establishment in the midst of a populous neighbourhood,
it must be confessed that few complaints have been made respecting
this one, and enquiry has generally shown that the cause of offence is
to a large extent avoidable, being due to temporary neglect of the means
provided for preventing the escape of effluvia.
Of all " nuisances " perhaps none is more injurious to health (besides
being often a cause of indecency) than " overcrowding." This happens
nearly always in houses let out in tenements; and is difficult to deal
with under the ordinary sanitary laws. It is to be desired that the
" Lodging house clauses " of the Sanitary Act, 1866, should be enforced
in this parish; regulations would have to be drawn up for the approva