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when it fell under the control of the newly-elected Vestry of Rotherhithe,
and the Surveyor of Sewers for Rotherhithe, Mr. George
Legg, caused it to be frequently and powerfully flushed from the
neighbouring millstream, a penstock having been constructed, under
his superintendence for that especial purpose (flushing), and the
sewer by the process was much relieved. Previously to the control
of the sewer by the Rotherhithe Vestry, and while it was under the
Commission of Sewers, nothing whatever was done to it, and it was
never once cleansed by them. In August, 1858, the management of
the sewer was taken by the Metropolitan Board, and the air-shafts
were then constructed, since which the whole line of street through
which the sewer passes is often filled with poisonous and pestilential
vapours. So much for the past. I am sorry to say that the Chairman's
anticipations of the future have also proved themselves to be
founded on imperfect data, as the gases evolved from the air-shafts
of that part of the sewer which has been cleansed, are now as bad
as they were before the sewer was cleansed at all by the Metropolitan
Board, a fact which was foretold by me in one of my previous
reports to this Vestry. The truth being, that the filthy stenches
are not evolved from the deposit at the bottom of the sewer, but
from the surface of the liquid in the sewer, which, owing to the
peculiar construction of its channel, and to the outlet being higher
than the sewer itself, stagnates therein ten hours out of twelve every
day. I consider that, as Medical Officer of Health to this Parish, I
should not be doing my duty to my fellow-parishioners, were I to
let this matter drop; and I will never let it drop, until some means
be used to remedy the terrific nuisance arising from the abovementioned
air-shafts.
It appears to be a rule of the Metropolitan Board, that only one
member of a deputation is allowed to address them. A member of
the Rotherhithe deputation (not the original spokesman), ignorant
of this rule, attempted to make a few observations, when, instead of
quietly informing him that he was out of order, an effort was made
by the gentlemen of the Metropolitan Board to cry him down, and
a scene of indescribable uproar ensued. The Chairman hammered,
and the gentlemen of the Board vocferated and clamoured, and
certainly a bystander at that moment would not have been forcibly
struck, either with the business-like habits, or dignified bearing of
the elect of the various parishes of this great Metropolis.
On Saturday, 2nd April, the Vestry-Clerk and myself waited on
John Locke, Esq., Q.C., and member of Parliament for the Borough
of Southwark, with a petition to the House of Commons from this
Vestry, concerning the air-shafts in the Deptford-road Sewer. He
promised that it should be duly presented. Several complaints were
made to me last month of the stenches arising at Mr. Fisher's