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43
BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES.
No steps were taken during the year to supply the parish with
these valuable institutions. I hope, however, that the subject will
be taken up again before long, your Yestry having already expressed
an opinion favourable to the principle. I have no doubt
that in a few years, and at whatever reasonable cost, Baths and
Wash-houses will be regarded as indispensable parts of a wellregulated
system of sanitary administration.
SEWER VENTILATION.
The subject of sewer ventilation has made little or no progress
during the year, and, as usual, numerous complaints have been
received of noxious smells emanating from the gullies and ventilators.
Each case has been dealt with as far as possible; and in
many of the cases charcoal filters have been introduced, with the
result of putting a stop to complaints. I am, nevertheless, somewhat
sceptical as to the value of this plan, as I cannot divest my
own mind of the suspicion that they impede ventilation, and may
prove effectual only by preventing the escape of foul air. The
subject was brought very prominently before your Vestry during
the current year, in consequence of numerous complaints by inhabitants
of Elsham-road of bad smells, not only in the roadway,
but also in the houses. I made an exhaustive report on the
locality, and advised measures for diminishing pressure in the
sewers, by opening up blind ends, and so allowing the gas to circulate,
or, at least, to escape innocuously into the open air, rather
than into the houses. I described the sanitary defects which
existed in the houses, and recommended ventilation of the house
drains by independent pipes carried from the highest point of the
drain to some distance above the parapets of the houses, and I pointed
out that this remedy alone would go far to remove the cause of
complaint. To what extent the plans have been carried out I have
not yet ascertained, but it is certain that a long period had since
elapsed without any communication on the subject having been received
in my department.
With respect to the question of circulation of air in sewers, plus
ventilation, I may mention that a striking illustration of the value
of this plan was afforded in the locality of Notting ilill Square.
At one of the houses at the southern, or loftiest side of the square,
there had been numerous cases of fever, and there was clear evidence
of the escape of sewer gas into the house in question. Upon
careful enquiry into the a; ain.ige of the locality, I ascertained that
the sewer which received the house drainage originated in a dead
or blind end, and that the ventilation was insufficient. Your Vestry
directed a communication to be made between the blind end in
question and another very near to it, thus setting up a free circulation
in the system; and at the same time freely ventilated the
sewer near the junction. The effect was everything that could be
desired f for certain improvements in respect of the trapping and
ventilation of the house drains having been carried out, the evil