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REPORT.
To the Board of Works for the Hackney District.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with the Resolution passed by you that I should
"draw up and present to the Board a Report upon the Sanitary effects
and advantages to be derived from Watering Streets and Roads during
the summer months,"I beg to lay the following before you.
The chief object in a sanitary point of view to be obtained by watering
the streets and roads is to prevent the dust from being blown about,
and consequently inhaled by the passers by; but we must not lose sight
of the cooling effect which it exercises, nor the increased humidity of
the atmosphere which it induces. In very hot weather it is important
to adopt all measures that will reduce temperature, as you may thereby
assist in reducing the sickness and probably the mortality from diarrhoea.
It is also advisable to increase the humidity of the air in large towns, as
the meteorological observations lately made by the medical officers of
Health, and other members of the Meteorological Society show that the
air of the Metropolis is drier the nearer we approach the centre of London,
even at the river side. The presence of pavement which prevents
rain from soaking into the ground, and the absence of verdure which
exhales moisture, contribute to this result.
Now, as the chief things for consideration in this present Report are
the chemical and physical effects produced by Watering the Roads, it
will be necessary in the first place to consider of what the road drift is
composed.
Road-drift varies greatly in its composition according to the surface
on which it occurs. On roads paved with blocks of granite it is chiefly
composed of dried animal excrement, mixed with fine particles of
granite and iron abraded by and from the shoes of the horses and tyres
of the wheels ; it also contains a small proportion of leather worn away
from the shoes of passengers. Road-sweepings of this kind are readily
saleable to agriculturists, and their value forms an item in the estimate
of scavengers when contracting to keep the roads clean. On the other
hand the road-drift of localities which have macadamised roads and
gravelled foot-paths is composed chiefly of granite and sand mixed with
a comparatively small quantity of animal excrement, which is valueless
to farmers as manure. These differences are perceptible not only to