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courts and saw an open butt standing close to an open privy, and under tbe
same roof. It was half full of a yellowish fluid, which I was desirous of
knowing the use of, for it never struck me that it was the water belonging
to a household. I knocked at the door and asked what it was used for. The
people seemed surprised, and said that it was the water which had only been
collected that morning. There was a standpipe in the yard, which was
stated to give out this fluid for about an hour a day. There was evidence
of th& fact in the water-logged surface of the court, into which the waste
water had sunk so as to add another cause of disease to the already unhealthy
court. I asked a woman if she got the water supply for her family out of
the butt. She replied that she had a store of her own, and produced a gallon
stone bottle half full, which would have to last her till next day.
" In another court where there was a standpipe I asked a woman who
was hard at work what she collected the water in when it came on: she
gave an evasive answer, and at last said she would show mo, and produced
a small, tub capable of containing about a gallon, but it was empty. She
had no water in the house.
"The other courts I visited in this neighbourhood were in much the
same state. They have all open privies, in a loathsome condition ; they are
all undrained, and have the surface filthy, and without flagging or cleansing.
"There are a number of house3 in Wilks-street, the back yards of
which are in a similar dirty and unwholesome condition. The water supply
is chiefly received in open butts, and has the same disgusting appearance
already described. "While in one of the houses I heard a sound of running
water, which I followed down a flight of steps into a dark noisome cellar.
A boy had followed with a small pitcher in his hand. I asked him where
the sound came from. He replied that it was only the water that had come
on. It was running over the floor, and I asked if there was no way for its
escape. He said there was a hole in the floor somewhere, and it got away
somehow. This was under a densely-peopled house. The houses are supplied
with open privies, the exhalations from which were extremely offensive.
In a court in the same neighbourhood the water was jetting out of the pipe
in curve over the surface. There was a deep trench, full of water and vegetable
refuse, cut across the court, which was unflagged and perfectly soaked.
The water was escaping down a hole close to the privy, either into a cesspool
or by a drain."
All the abovementioned places are now in every respect much improved.
"I visited the courts along Wentworth-street, Old Montague-street,
Princes-street, Duckingpond-row, Petticoat-lane, and Rosemary-lane, with
Mr. Taylor, assistant relieving officer. A few are well flagged, and wherever
this improvement is efficiently done the courts present a remarkable contrast
to others in the neighbourhood.
" In one instance there were two courts, about the same length and
breadth, next to each other. Both were inhabited by the same class of people,
chiefly Irish, the only apparent difference being that one court was