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10
promises; I must premise by stating, that no means has yet
been discovered of carrying on the process of gas-making without
offensive odours. In some respects, great improvements have
taken place. Sulphate of iron, mixed with saw-dust, has been
substituted as a purifier, instead of milk of lime, which was
formerly a source of greatgrievance to the neighbouring dwellinghouses;
when it was emptied from the purifying vessels into an
open pit in the yard, emitting, at the time of its discharge, aud
afterwards, large quantities of hydrosulphurous gas. I caused
a purifier, containing dry lime, and another, containing the sulphate
of iron to be stirred up in my presence; I perceived nothing
more than the ordinary smell of gas, and that not so strongly
as I expected.
1 mentioned in my first Report, that sulphate of ammonia is
fabricated on the premises, and described the process. A new
branch of industry has sprung up since that Report was written,
namely, the making of the muriate, or rather hydrochlorate of
ammonia. This salt is produced by causing the gas, immediately
after the first process of washing and still containing
much ammonia, to pass through a solution of chloride of manganese,
in a closed vessel. Decomposition takes place, hydrochlorate
of ammonia is formed, and the oxyde of manganese
precipitated. The mother liquor, containing the muriate of
ammonia in solution, is then drawn off and allowed to settle.
It is afterwards brought up in large shallow troughs, lined
with lead and heated by pipes, through which hot steam is continually
passing, the muriate of ammonia becoming deposited
as the water disappears.
The vessel containing the solution of muriate of ammonia
was emptied out in my presence. A slight effluvium of sulphurous
gases was given off, but it did not last long nor extend
itself beyond the building.
A fault was originally committed by the Parish of Rotherhithe,
in allowing a Gas Company to establish its works so near
the dwellings; but now that these works are established, I
think it a part of my duty to visit them occasionally and report
thereon to this Vestry.
I have the pleasing assertion to make, that in no month since
I have addressed reports to this Board, has the mortality been
so small as in June, 1857; only twenty-four deaths having
been registered in Rotherhithe, ten less than in the corresponding
month of last year, and thirteen under the usual monthly
average. The parish continues quite free from epidemic disease,
nor has a single death therefrom been registered during the just
elapsed months. A few cases of mild diarrhoea have occurred,
but no fatal one has been recorded.