View report page

42
explanation is sought." Mr. Radcliffe
in summarily closingthis scct ion
of locality quotes Dr. William
rarker, Medical Officer of Health
for Bermondsey, who said that the
disease shewed no epidemic activity
except in the eastern part of the
parish. "In a block of small
streets seldom free from fever, or
other zymotic disease, and inhabited
by poor Irish labourers employed
at the Docks and Wharves,
whose wives work at cinder sift ing.
sack sewing, or in glue and size
yards, and where the children are
much neglected."
tude is known, the density estimated,
the soil dug up to ascertain
its zymotic condition, the filth in
its aggregate is brought to the glare
of day, and the sewerage dodged
step by step in its windings through
the field of the explosion; then the
vagueness is at once lost in the
palpable and the visible, and the
term "locality" becomes full of
significance and meaning, so that
every one can comprehend it.
I shall say but little more about
"locality," nor take the trouble to
make any comparison further between
the east and the west of
London. There are the facts—
they cannot be shaken. As to their
weight, if doctors differ, let practical
men decide.* Such as compare
the sewerage of the East, especially
of the Limehouse District, with the
City, the Strand, St. Jamess, and
the other western river districts,
the curt settlement of that may bo
left to Dr. Letheby and others with
official standing. And if ono or
more point to Bermondsey, Rotherhithe,
and Southwark as the equals
in filth, I will refer the disposal of
the matter to every plain-spoken
man, to the common-sense class that
walk the streets at noonday, apart
from the professional opinion of
Engineers, Surveyors, &c., whether
*
Great rejoicings, I am informed, are in prospect when the low level sewer is finished, as this will
then complete the drainage of the north of the river Thames into the main outfall terminating at
Barking. But let the inhabitants of the East hold down their heads, and keep aloof, as for a certainty
the additional sewage of 500,000 more people, beginning at the City and ending at Hammersmith, will
sweep past their doors, and do anything but freshen up the musty courts and alleys on the way.