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The cesspool common to the dwellings, Nos. 367 and ???
Rotherhithe-wall, encroaches throe or four feet upon the year
of No. 1, Queen-street, out of which it has been dug. ???
merely boarded over, the boards being covered with earth, ???
is an impediment to the drainage of the latter house. Notice
have been served at 367 and 368, to the effect that they be properly
drained.
The vaults under Rotherhithe Church have been visited ???
me. I shall not describe them, as their extent and situation ???
generally known to the parishioners. Suffice it to say, that
several hundred bodies are accumulated there in coffins of ???
lead, or iron. Any suggestion to remove them would naturally
revolt the feelings of the parishioners. On being asked for ???
opinion as to what I thought should be done, I remarked that
they might easily be hermetically closed with brick-work. ???
the expense of this proceeding may, however, prevent this idea
from being favourably received, and as the vaults are clean
orderly, without smell, and well-ventilated, I should ???
suggest that they be left as they are for the present, and that
they, at stated periods, say once every three months, be inspect
by competent persons.
In January the number of deaths was 68, in February 52, and
in March 46:— the figures evidently showing a decreasing mortality.
The measles, which alone carried off eighteen persons
in January, and eight in February, seem to have entirely disapeared,
no death from that cause having been registered in
March. Two fatal cases of scarlatina, two of hooping-cough
and one of typhus, occurred in Rotherhithe during the last month.
One hundred and sixty-six persons died in the quarter ending
the 1st of April, 1858, viz., ninety-one males and seventy-five
females, and there were two hundred and sixteen births, ???
one hundred and two males and one hundred and fourteen
females. The excess of the births over the deaths being fifty.
Yours respectfully,
April, 1858. W. MURDOCH.
TWENTY-EIGHTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
On a piece of waste-ground between Lavender-cottages and
Lavender-place, there is an ashpit, into which the inhabitants for
the locality, throw the dust and offal from their houses. Notice
only is the ashpit full, but the patch of land for some feet arround
it, is covered with ashes and decomposing animal and vegetable
matter, which may, in warm weather, produce bad consequence.