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about an acre and a half, and its height (which is continually in.
crcasing from the twenty-four loads of refuse carted there daily
averages about fifteen feet, but on one spot it rises to twenty
feet, and towers pyramid-like above the arches of the neighbouring
railway. Notwithstanding the care taken to hide under the
ashes the decomposing animal and vegetable matter, there was
when the Committee examined the heap on the 2Uth January
at its north-east end, a faint sickening smell. In justice, how
ever, to the Vestry of liermondsey, 1 am bound to say that all
the vegetable matter carted there is not in a stato of decomposition,
us the innumerable cabbage-stalks mixed with the house
refuse, are freely sprouting and exhibiting signs of lively vegetation
on the fat and well-manured soil of the hillock.
Forty-three deaths were registered last month in Rotherhithe
The death register presents nothing remarkable.
Yours respectfully,
February, 1859. W. MURDOCH.
THIRTY-EIGHTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
On the 17th of February, I had an interview with R. D
Grainger, Esq., the object of which was, that we might confc
together on the state of the vaults under Kotherhithe Church
and the means to be employed with regard to them. The opinion
of the Government Officer is, that the ina.ss of human decay
accumulated in those vaults does exhale, or may exhale gase
which may prove injurious to the health of the inhabitants,
stated to him the objections to this opinion given in my Report
of last month, nauielv:—that none of the coffius in the vaul???
are air-tight; that no body has been buried there during the las??
six years, and that some of the bodies were deposited there
century ago or more, and consequently, all the gases have bet
given off f rom them long ago, and finally, that from the peculi???
and powerful ventilation of the vaults, they (the bodies) are ha???
and mummified, and harmless as the dry preparations in a???
anatomical museum. I also represented that putrefying anim???
matter from the quantity of ammonia and its 6alts evolved i???
the process of decomposition always betrays itself to the sense
while the atmosphere of the vaults under Kotherhithe Church
seems as pure as the air outside. I might have added to these
statements, the undeniable fact mentioned to me by the Medical
Officer of the West Division of this Parish, and confirmed be
my own observation, viz.:—that the district round the church
is remarkably healthy, although some parts of it—such as John'