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plaster, old boots, and various kinds of rubbish, found at the bottom of the
butts from which the water is drawn. I have often found animalculæ in the
water. The new Water Act will, if fairly carried out, put an end to this
evil, by establishing a constant supply. The arrangements under this Act,
as now proposed, are too complicated and expensive for poor neighbourhoods,
and have rather, for their object, the protection of the Companies, than the
advantage of the poor, in whose behalf the Act was ostensibly passed. The
division of the area of supply into smaller groups of houses, each group with
its own reservoir, provided with a guage to show the height of the water at
all times, would enable the Companies to control the supply, so that there
should be no undue waste of water, and to detect it at once, wherever it
occurred ; it would also facilitate operations for the extinction of fires, and
would be cheaper in the end, both for the Companies and the public. The
present system is inapplicable to existing requirements. The supply has
grown beyond the organization. It is not improbable that the end of the
long agitation on the combined subjects of water and gas, will be the placing
of the distribution of these necessaries of town life in the hands of a municipal
authority.
The Gas supply. 15. The Imperial Company supplies the gas for this
District. The purity of gas is an important sanitary requirement; for there
are many painful maladies that are distinctly traceable to our modern methods
of consuming coal gas. The sulphur contained in gas, if not actually causing
serious diseases of a permanent nature, unquestionably produces pulmonary
and cerebral symptoms of a distressing character, and it is highly desirable
that this impurity should be as much as possible eliminated. The Imperial
Company's gas is not often deficient in illuminating power, and it evidences
but a small quantity of ammonia; but I regret to say that it contains
a large quantity of sulphur. For example, according to Dr. Letheby's
last Report, it appears, that whilst the average amount of sulphur at the
several stations of the Chartered Company was 13.6 grains per hundred
cubic feet, that of the Imperial Company was 31. per cent. The South
Metropolitan Company's gas indeed exceeded this proportion, viz. 36.11 per
cent. It is satisfactory to know that, after the 30th of June next, the
Gas Inspectors will require that the maximum amount of sulphur in gas
shall not be more than 20 grains per hundred cubic feet.
The Houses in St. Giles District.
16. The number of houses in the District was, according to the census of
1861, 4690, and according to the census of 1871, 4541. Of the latter
number there were 2010 in Bloomsbury, 1209 in St. Giles South, and 1322
in St. Giles North. In the ten years there has been an increase of 20 in
Bloomsbury, and a decrease of 134 in St. Giles South, and of 35 in St. Giles
North. (See Report for 1871.)
17. This slight reduction of the house accommodation has been caused
chiefly by the conversion of dwelling-houses into warehouses—a process that
is likely to go on with increasing rapidity every coming year. In illustration,
1 may point out that Barley Court, which was demolished two years
ago, is now partly occupied by a warehouse. The larger portion of Newton
Street has been recently pulled down, and warehouses are already in course
of erection upon the site. So with other places. As the trade of London
continues to increase, so St. Giles, which lies close to the great centres of
business, must be expected to be occupied more and more with warehouses,
and less and less with the miserable dwelling-houses which have hitherto
sheltered its poor population. It requires no foresight to predict that, if
London continues to be as prosperous in the future as in the past, a considerable
transformation in this respect in St. Giles will take place in the
course of another ten years. As the leases of the bad property fall in,
warehouses will rise in all available situations.