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builders. Instead of attractive to a class of
respectable persons, this suburb of London being
now regarded as one of the healthy and open
parts, will soon be characterized as one of the
worst and most repulsive, unless precautionary
measures are taken in time to avoid overcrowding
and future ill consequences resulting from it.
Several orders have been lately issued for better
drainage in plots where water collects and stagnates
in pools, emitting malaria sufficient to affect
residents in the adjoining houses. Another evil
arises from the practice of filling up ground with
road scrapings and "slop shoots." This is highly
objectionable, inasmuch as the scrapings of macadam
and gravel roads contain a sufficiently large
proportion of organic matter, in the form of horse
dung, to evolve for some time smells from impure
gases.
Basements of houses will for a long time after
they have been erected have a mouldy smell if
built upon this made ground. Slop should not be
allowed within the foundations or interior of a
house, which ought to be only of concrete or dry
builders' rubbish, or cinders.
I have examined several specimens of this newly
made soil. After the first year of deposit, it shrinks
to one half its bulk from evaporation; it is
generally inodorous when dug up, but it still
continues to give off moisture charged with organic
effluvia, polluting for some time the air in the
vicinity. This arises perhaps from fish refuse and
d