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11
position, that there is no class of disease which is more commonly
traceable to overcrowding and insufficient ventilation.
THE CANAL BASIN.
From the preceding pages you will observe that the Parish
of Paddington is not inferior in respect of salubrity to any
similarly situated district in the Metropolis. But there can be
no doubt that if it were not for one great cause of unhealthiness,
the comparison would be much more favourable. The
fact that the Canal itself, and the various noxious trades which
are carried on on its banks, have for many years exercised an
injurious influence on the surrounding population, has long
been familiar to all who take an interest in the sanitary
improvement of the Parish. During the present year the
Sanitary Committee has given its most careful attention to the
subject, and has arrived at the conclusion not only that the
Canal and its accompaniments are a public nuisance, but that
in an unmistakeable manner, they shorten the lives, and
multiply the diseases, of the inhabitants.
The Canal Basin may be described as a stagnant and fetid
pool; its water contains a large quantity of animal and other
organic impurities, and from its surface every breeze carries
noxious emanations.* It receives the offensive drainage from
the slop yards, lay stalls, and dust wharves on the banks, and
serves as a common cesspool to the numerous inhabitants of
the barges. In the dust wharves just mentioned the refuse of
a large proportion of the Metropolis is collected. Almost all
the constituents of this material are of value, and are convertible
into marketable products, which are used either in the
* The water of the Canal Basin contains a large quantity of animal matter,
partly suspended, partly dissolved; this consisting either of living animalculæ or
semi-putrescent debris. It contains in one gallon upwards of eighteen grains of
organic impurities of various kinds, of which six grains are separable by filtration,
and twelve exist in a state of solution. The mud from the bottom of the
channel gives off when agitated the odour of rotten eggs. This is owing to the
presence of sulphurets, which, when acted on by the carbonic acid of the
atmosphere, evolve volumes of that highly offensive and extremely poisonous gas,
called sulphuretted hydrogen.