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33
years to come. Thus to take one instance. In
1856, I believe I may say that there were hundreds
of privies in the Parish. There are tens of
thousands in London at the present moment.
Amongst crowded populations there is no more
fruitful source of disease than an open privy. It
is here that contagious diseases are propagated by
the effluvium from the discharges of one person
being conveyed to another. In a large number of
cases in London there is but one privy to one family,
and it is through these abominable depositories of
human filth that a large amount of the Zymotic
disease of London and in large towns are disseminated.
The privy has, I believe, been abolished
in Saint James's, Westminster, and instead water
closets have been erected which wherever they are
likely to be neglected are visited by the Sanitary
Inspector.
Whilst there can be no doubt of the enormous
benefit derived from the water closet system as
compared to that of privies or cesspools which are
only closed privies, it is still, I think, a question as
to whether some more economical method of getting
rid of the sewerage of our houses might not be
had recourse to. In my Report for 1858 I said,
"There can be no doubt that plans as cleanly,
"as free from objection, and as economical as thfs
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