View report page

27
half the number were from diseases of the lungs and airpassages.
Hooping-cough and measles are very prevalent. One
child aged 8, died of inflammation of the brain, in consequence of
the accidental insertion of a pea into the ear.
During the quarter ending December 31st, 1857, there died in
Rotherhithe one hundred and twenty-five persons, viz.:— sixtythree
males, and sixty-two females; and there were born one
hundred and ninety-three children, viz.:— one hundred and
twelve males, and eighty-one females, the excess of births over
deaths being sixty-eight.
Yours respectfully,
January, 1858. W. MURDOCH.
TWENTY-FIFTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
In my last Report it was stated, that no distinct kinds of
noxious gases proceed from the patent manure factories, viz:—
1st. Sulphuretted and phosphurettedhydrogen, and other stinking
effluvia, which can be tasted as well as smelt, and which give
rise in those who are not accustomed to them, after breathing
them for a short time, to loss of appetite, nausea, and headache.
2nd. The acid fumes, whose action upon the respiratory organs
is immediate, causing a violent cough and feeling of suffocation.
Any passenger in Rotherhithe-street might have witnessed the
truth of this last statement on Monday, 18th January last,
when the mixing was in full operation within the premises of
Messrs. Miller and Johnson.
The acid vapour, escaping from every aperture of the factory,
was drifted down the street by a north-westerly wind; and all
persons coming up the street, on their arrival at the east end of
the Surrey Canal-bridge, were at once seized with cough, which
continued for some time after.
I entered the premises twice in an hour, and caused a notice
to be served. A promise was obtained that the nuisance should
not again occur; but if it does occur, 1 am only expressing
the opinion of every individual who felt the effects of it on that
day, when I say that it ought to be put down at any cost.
At a block of houses called Garden-row, near the Rotherhithe
New road, there is no drainage whatever. Some of the cesspools
are overflowing, and the inmates of the dwellings have
cut grooves in the yards, to carry off their waste water, which
has accumulated, and forms a stagnant ditch at the back of
No. 6.