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43
it be not a sheer pretence of belief
in any one having a knowledge of
the south and the western river
districts, to attempt to make any
comparison so far between their
sanitary condition and that of the
East of London in point of filth
and sewerage, or that of any other,
or of all the other, districts in the
metropolis.
There are not less than four
large Gas Works of great Companies
in the Eastern Districts, two*
of which may be said to diffuse
their filth, both gaseous and liquid,
in the Liraehouse District.
Within 200 yards of the Regent's
Canal and Dock, in a space of 80
acres, 200 persons perished in the
epidemic from Cholera and Diarrhoea.
If the same mortality had
raged throughout the district, instead
of 630 deaths, the correct
number, 1,600 would have been the
victims from the pestilence, or very
nearly one third of all who died from
the disease in the East of London.
Within these 80 acres, form the
convergence of this foul Canal, still
fouler Dock, and foulest of all, the
Limehouse Cut; while within the
same space sweeps down the sewage
of upwards of half-a-million inhabitants,
and finds here a focus for
* The Commercial Gas Works stand out of the Diitrict only by the width of a narrow street