View report page

8
confine their ravages to the locality where they are generated, but they extend to other
places ; which clearly shows that all the inhabitants of this vast metropolis are equally
interested in endeavouring to prevent fever occurring in any locality. It is to the interior
of the houses that our attention must be most particularly directed—for it is here, that
the source of diseases is generally to be found.
I regret to be compelled to state that the syphoned traps to privies, in many
instances, continue to be broken ; and when repaired, they have been, and shortly
afterwards, again destroyed. This is much to be deplored, but if landlords would
suggest any better plan than the syphoned traps now in use, which would be more
durable and less expensive, and at the same time as efficient in preventing the escape
of the effluvia of privies, such plan would be readily adopted. In the mean time,
however, we have no alternative, in cases of nuisance from privies, but to continue to
order the further use of such traps. Landlords, and their agents, might, upon every
occasion of collecting their rents, take some pains to instruct their tenants in the use of
such apparatus which has been constructed for their health and comfort; and it will be
found, that the poor will as readily receive instruction, and can as readily profit by
it, as their more wealthy fellow citizens.
In the month of December last, Mr. Coward, one of the Sanitary Inspectors of
the district, seized about one cwt. of unsound meat which was unlawfully exposed for
sale, at a butcher's shop in Spitalfields ; and it was conveyed by him to the Police
Office, in Worship Street. The magistrate, upon inspection of the meat, being satisfied
that it was unfit for human food, ordered it to be destroyed, and he inflicted a penalty
of £5 on the person who exposed the same for sale. An appeal against the conviction
of the magistrate was prosecuted at the Guildhall, Westminster ; but the conviction
was confirmed, with £10 costs, in addition to the fine imposed by the magistrate.
Amongst other sanitary improvements which have been effected during the past
year, in this district, I may mention the paving of Little Love Court, Hebrew Place,
Little Middlesex Street, Love Court, Boar's Head Yard, Spring Gardens, and Mason's
Court; the opening out of Quaker Street, by the removal of some old warehouses and
dwelling-houses, and the converting of Iieate Court into a thoroughfare.
The paving of courts, and the opening out of thoroughfares in confined
neighbourhoods, will prove not only beneficial to the health of the inhabitants, but will
contribute to their comfort. It is a well ascertained fact, that whenever a Court has
been well paved, the landlords have been induced to improve their houses, and the
tenants have shown a disposition to keep their rooms and passages in a cleaner state.
The attempt to keep the interior of a house clean is fruitless, if the immediate
approaches to it are in a filthy condition.
The nuisances arising from the carrying on offensive trades have been much
mitigated ; and, although complaints are occasionally made, I have invariably found a
disposition on the part of the manufacturers to use their utmost endeavours to prevent
annoyance to the neighbourhood.
Iu several parts of the district, the houses are very old and dilapidated, and it