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pointed to certain works. Having ascertained from the Surveyor of Sewers that the drains
of these premises were connected with the main sewer, I visited them on three separate
occasions. On my first visit I noticed the careless manner in which the men who were
emptying a large tank wheeled the material from one part of the yard to another, thereby
spilling a quantity of ammoniacal liquor on the ground. It then occurred to me that this
liquor and other materials, when washed from the ground into the drains and carried into
the sewer, might give rise to the peculiar odour aforementioned. Notice was served upon the
Company to use all possible care to prevent the offending materials from being scattered on
the ground, or being allowed to lie about until washed into the drains; and also to use the
ike care when emptying retorts and tanks." My report of June 17th recurred to this
subject in these terms:—" On Thursday evening, the 12th instant, the obnoxious odour
which has so frequently of late proved a source of annoyance to all the inhabitants along
the Lower Road from Albion Street to the Deptford Road Railway Station was again
markedly manifest. A few minutes after 7.0 p.m. I went to the Clerk of the Works. We
began our examination of the ventilating holes of the main sewer, from the Red Lion to the
junction of Albion Street with the Lower Road. At each hole we found an escape of a most
pernicious effluvium. We continued our examination along Albion Street, and found the
same odour, until we reached the opening where the two sewers—one from Rotherhithe
Street, running along Swan Lane, and the other from Oak Place—meet. We then went
from the end of Swan Lane along Rotherhithe Street, Rotherhithe Wall, King Street,
Paradise Street, Lucas Street, and Union Road. Along this route no offensive effluvium was
perceptible. Two samples of sludge were taken at the time of the visit, one from the point
where Albion Street meets the Lower Road ; the other at the Park Gates, near the Deptford
Road Railway Station. These were submitted on the following morning to Dr. Stevenson
for analysis. Taking many things into consideration, such as the peculiar character of the
effluvium, the regular periodicity of the recurrence, the route along which the obnoxious smell
is found, I am forced to the conclusion that the cause arises mainly, or almost so, from the
fluids which are allowed to enter the sewers from the Gas Works in Rotherhithe Street.
These fluids are permitted to enter the drains just as they leave the works, without the least
attempt to mitigate the influence they must exert on the matters they come in contact with,
as they pass from one portion of sewer to another. Two suggestions I would therefore offer
to your consideration: 1st. That notice should be sent to the Gas Company, calling upon