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manufacture of bricks,—as manure, or for other important
purposes. In order to separate these products from each other,
the contents of the dust-bins are sifted on the dust wharf by
women employed for the purpose. This process, even when
carried on in the most unexceptionable manner, is of so
offensive a nature, that it ought not to be tolerated in a neighbourhood
so closely inhabited as that which surrounds the
Canal Basin.
In the wharves above alluded to as slop yards, the semifluid
material swept from the roads by the scavengers is
deposited in troughs or pits constructed for the purpose. In
these it undergoes a gradual process of evaporation, the results
of which are unquestionably of such a nature as to be
injurious to health. Road sweepings contain a large proportion
of putrescible material, which, in a half dry condition,
give rise to the evolution of noxious emanations in considerable
quantities.
The following statistical results derived from the public
Records of Mortality, and capable of being at any time verified
by comparison with them, show that the opinion I have
expressed, strong as it may seem, is something more than
mere opinion,—that it is an established and attested fact.
In order to compare the mortality prevalent in the neighbourhood
of the Canal with that of the whole Parish, I have
enumerated separately the deaths occurring in the area
immediately surrounding it, which I have distinguished as the
Canal District. This District is about 239 acres in extent,
while the whole Parish has an area of 1280. It may be
estimated to contain at most, 1700 habitable houses; while
the whole Parish contains considerably more than 7000. It is
bounded by a line running parallel to the margin of the Canal
on either side at 200 yards distance.
During the six months ending September 27th, 1856, there
occurred in the whole Parish 252 deaths of infants under five
years; of these 141 occurred in the Canal District, 101 in the
rest of the Parish.