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edge of the bank, near the stream. On the eastern embankment,
the mud had been piled up in heaps, in different places ;
indeed the greater part of what had been removed from the bed
of the water-course had been thrown there. In Glebe-terrace, and
thereabouts, it had been projected within a few feet of the dwellings;
and in Moreton- terrace, so close to the walls and doors of the
houses, that the pathway before them was literally covered with
it, ,and the inmates forced to walk in and over the mud to get to
and from their houses. Although the weather was cold at the
time of my examinations, this accumulation of solid sewage,
the settlings of a quarter of a century or more, exhaled a faint,
sickening smell. No nuisance is more likely to generate disease
than such a mass of decomposing organic filth. Ague and typhoid
fever are likely to be engendered from such a cause, there
being no fact in the whole range of medical science more clearly
established, and more universally admitted, than that the effluvium.
from, the mud of ponds and ditches is a subtile poison,
always injurious, and often fatal, to the human constitution.
At the back of Clare-hall-cottages, there is a large dustbin,
which stands away from the tenements, and receives the ashes
and refuse of several of them. The inmates complain that the
scavengers do not remove the dust sufficiently often. I think
that the contents of the dustbin ought to be carted away regularly
once a week; and I have, through Mr. Sanders, the inspector,
called thereto the attention of the contractor.
At No. 12, Neptune-street, a house let out in lodgings and
containing seventeen inmates; there is no privy and no
drainage. I shall not attempt to describe the abominations of
the back premises, in consequence of these defects; the case
appears urgent, and wanting immediate remedy. This house
has been for a long time in a deplorable condition, and has
been frequently visited and reported on before.
At Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, Gardiner-row, and 15, 16, 17,
Debenham-row, Rotherhithe New-road; cesspools have been
dug in the gardens, to receive the drainage of the houses. The
quantity of liquid thrown down and the storm-waters soon fill
the cesspools, which overflow, and convert the yards into
lakes and ponds of sewage. There being no sewer in the neighbourhood,
the only remedy for such a state appears to be, a
frequent cleansing of the cesspools, unless the landlords be
allowed to drain into a neighbouring open ditch. However
undesirable draining into open ditches may be, in the abovementioned
case, it would be infinitely preferable to what at present
exists, by carrying the sewage further away from the
dwellings, and into an open space, where the effluvia becoming
diluted would, in all probability, be harmless.