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18
4. Sanitary Operations.
"All experience is in favour of the Hindoo doctrine—that
pure air, earth and water constitute the basis of a healthy
climate." That the construction of the Great Middle Level
Sewer, by pumping off the saturating water, will materially
improve our soil there cannot be a doubt; for along its course,
many of the shallow wells are now dried up. We shall not,
therefore, take so " largely into our lungs, into our blood,
and into our brains and nervous systems" the poison heretofore
circulating in and exhaling from the ground below.
Among the sanitary advantages of the year, I have the
pleasure of recording that certain annoyances in smoking Fish,
in Pig-hair dyeing, and in burning the refuse of the Lucifer
Factories, have been removed—that the Slaughter Houses
have been inspected and improved—that overcrowding has
been checked, and Pig-keeping on many occasions stopped.—
Here also I would record our farther obligations to an
exalted Lady for her munificent donation of " The Victoria
Fountain" in the Second Part of Victoria Park—" Given
Anno Domini 1862, by AngelaGeorgina BurdettCoutts"
—" For the love of God and Country."
Table 11,—the figures of which I owe to the kindness of
your Surveyor and Inspector—shows how many houses have
been inspected, how many drains constructed, trapped and
improved, how many cesspools have been emptied or filled-up,
and other measures that have been carried out.
Lastly, I have to submit the Sanitary Works of the five
years 1856-60, which I have drawn out at the request of the
Honorary Secretary of the Metropolitan Association of Medical
Officers of Health, in order that they may be laid before
the National Association for the promotion of Social Science,
and printed in the Transactions of the Association. Exclusive
of these, I had also to return the population and mortality
onwards from 1831.