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results have been already obtained. A. Bill for the compulsory notification
of infectious disease has been prepared by Mr. Hastings,
which, I hope, will soon be added to the Statute Book.
To the Committee of Works, Whitechapel District.
REPORT ON THE SEWERS IN FREEMAN STREET, SPITALFIELDS.
Gentlemen,
A complaint, signed by seventeen inhabitants of Freeman Street,
Spitaltields, saying that the smell arising from the sewers in that street is
"abominable and unbearable, and might cause a serious epidemic amongst their
families, of whom some are already suffering from ill health," has been referred
by your Committee to me.
It appears on investigation that those sewers are nearly on a level, and they
contained a large deposit of offensive matter. The number of gullies attached
to the several sewers in the streets of the Tenter Ground, Spitalfields, is 17, and
the ventilating shafts 7. Although the gullies and ventilating shafts are numerous
in this locality, it will be unsafe to close any of them, for the doing so would
render it impossible, without danger being incurred by men going into the sewers
to cleanse them. In order to diminish the nuisauce the Surveyor proposes that
an air shaft should be carried from the sewer above the roof of the highest house.
There cannot be any objection to the carrying out of the suggestion of the
Surveyor, and it will to a certain extent be useful
As however a similar complaint as to the nuisance from the sewers is continually
being made in many parts of London, a more extended plan of operations
than that proposed must be adopted, so as to relieve the entire population of
London from the serious nuisance and danger to health arising from the sewers ;
and in order to carry out such a large scheme, the matter must be referred to the
Metropolitan Board, so as effectually to deal with all the sewers, whether main
sewers, which are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board, but also those
which are under the management of the several District Boards.
In some of my early Quarterly Reports I have brought under the notice of
your Board the faulty condition of many of the sewers in your District, and
stated that in all cases where the sewers were not built with a proper incline, such
sewers should be re-constructed. Many of the sswers are little better than cesspools,
and they give rise to typhoid fever and other contagious diseases; and so
long as they are permitted to continue in their present state, so long will the
inhabitants of London be liable to such diseases.
In my Report for the Quarter ended June, 1872, it was staled that typhoid
fever is never entirely absent from London, there being seldom less than 2000
deaths annually from this disease and 14,000 cases of sickness.
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
15, Great Alie Street, JOHN LIDDLE.
5th October, 1882.
In one of my early Quarterly Reports, I stated that in 1862 we
had removed the filth from 3471 cesspools. Although such a large
amount of filth has been removed from our houses, and principally