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4. — That if outside stand-pipes be erected in any court in which the
houses are supplied severally by an intermittent service, it will be necessary
that the inside reccptacle and fittings to the several houses should be
removed previously to the outside stand-pipes being erected.
5.—In all cases where the inside supply is such that the same cistern
is used both for flushing the closet and for domestic and drinking purposes,
such inside receptacle should be removed, and outside stand-pipes
substituted for them.
6.—From personal interviews and written communications which I
have had with the Engineer of the New River Company, I learn that no
additional cost for water rate will be incurred by the Landlord for changing
the intermittent to the constant supply; and that no additional expense
will be incurred by the erection of several stand-pipes in the same court,
excepting the necessary cost that erecting the several stand-pipes will involve.
7.—The best mode of flushing the closets in the poorer neighbourhoods
is that which has been for many years adopted in this district, viz:—by
throwing down a pail or pails of water, the force of which will more
effectually cleanse the pan and remove obstructions than the very ineffective
apparatus in general use in such places, and which apparatus is seldom found
to be in good working order. This plan is considered by Mr. Pole, a civil
engineer of large experience, to be the best adapted for the poorer class of
houses, and also by Captain Tyler, who says "that the apparatus of the
water-closet is seldom in proper order, and it is probably better to leave it
to be flushed by pails of water, than to attempt any more complicated
arrangement."
8.—Owing to the faulty construction of a great many of the houses
occupied by the poor, the same being built without back yards, without
landings, and without sinks, it is unadvisable to supply the tenants with
water except by means of stand-pipes constantly charged with water
outside the houses; although it appears that in Manchester the watersupply
is given in the inside of the houses.
When butts and cisterns are used for the supply of courts, which is
necessarily the case where there are no back yards and the water is on the
intermittent service, these receptacles are exposed to the contamination of
atmosphere which is generally loaded with impurities, and to the heat of
the sun, which not only render the water unpalatable but unwholesome.
Besides, butts and cisterns so placed, are seldom cleansed. I may here add
that it will be necessary entirely to reconstruct most of the houses occupied
by the poor in this district before they can be supplied with water on the
constant service, in the interior of their houses.
After what Dr. Buchanan has said respecting the outbreak of fever
in Tree Court, Caius College, Cambridge, the importance of the following
regulations of the Water Companies will be fully appreciated.
Every boiler, urinal, and watercloset, in which water supplied by
the Company is used (other than waterclosets in which hand flushing is
employed), shall, within three months after these regulations come into