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prevalence of fever some most sickening scenes were witnessed;
and in more instances than one, difficulty was experienced in
inducing the men to remove the bedding and cleanse the apartments
of the sick. The amalgamation of the four parishes which
now form the St. Saviour's Union, will probably produce one good
effect. It gives the poor in crowded districts an extended area
in which to reside, without losing their claim on the Guardians
for relief.
Probably, when this is more generally understood, the poorer
classes will be more equally distributed over the entire Union.
This advantage, together with a judicious application of the
powers conferred by the " Act to provide better Dwellings for
Artisans and Labourers," will, doubtless, eventually mitigate the
evil of over-crowding, and afford more healthy and comfortable
homes for the poor. The virtue of cleanliness will be more highly
appreciated when better accommodation is found, and when
the progress of education has imparted more self-respect to the
impoverished classes.
The water supply is unhappily, still intermittent, and during
the year, that of the Companies supplying the South of London
was, on several occasions, very impure. The important influence
of water upon the health of the people is so universally recognised,
that more than ordinary attention is being devoted to the
subject. Professor Frankland was again engaged during the
year in testing the purity of waters of the Metropolitan Water
Companies; and it appeared that of the twelve occasions when he
analysed the Lambeth and Southwark Waters, they were clear
and transparent the fewest number of times, and very turbid the
largest number—that living organisms were seen in the waters
of the Southwark Company on eight out of twelve occasions, and
in the Lambeth waters on five occasions. In the water of three
other Companies none were discovered.
This frequent impurity induced the Privy Council to direct an
enquiry to be made into its causes, and Mr. Radcliffe, who was
entrusted with the investigation, reports that " he found the
turbidity of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company's water to be
due : 1st, to deficiency of provision for subsidence ; 2nd, insufficiency
of area of filtering surface; 3rd, in certain instances, to the
admission of tidal water from the Thames into the reservoirs at
Battersea, either by direct inflow, by soakage, or by leakage ;
and 4th, to the admission of unfiltered water from the subsidence
reservoirs into the pump wells." Mr. Radcliffe adds that " it
should be required absolutely of the Company that the communication
of the reservoirs at Battersea with the tidal portion
of the Thames by means of the old conduit leading to Battersea
Reach, and the direct communication of the subsidence reservoirs
with the pumping wells, should be entirely cut off."