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17
popular error that bad smells are of themselves quite
sufficient to breed disease, the state of matters in almost
every one's house during that long frost, and the unprecedented
water famine that accompanied it, is quite fresh in
the minds of all, yet though olfactory nuisances were the
order of the day—and night—in numberless instances,
it is an absolute fact that there was no excessive amount of
illness attributable to this cause, nor was there a single
typhoid case at that time as a consequence, in fact the
first case as already mentioned did not appear until the
beginning of October. There were but few houses indeed
that had water all through the frost, and the majority were
compelled to go, often long distances, to fetch the minimum
amount they could do with. Drains were not flushed for
weeks on end, and in many cases the soil pipes were
blocked and frozen. Of course I am not holding out that
such a state of things is harmless, far from it, but the
reason why so little mischief was done was fortuitously
owing to the fact that the frost that caused the trouble also
tended to minimise the possible evil consequences by
arresting putrefaction. Heat and moisture are essential
for promoting that, and intense frost holds these changes
in suspension. Were it not so, there would probably have
been, with such lack of efficient sanitation, any amount of
diarrhoea, and possibly sore throats. The freezing of the
water mains owing to the shallow depths at which many of
them were laid, was, it is now admitted by the water
companies, the cause of much of the inconvenience. It
will be a great satisfaction to all householders to know that
the Council have made satisfactory arrangements with the
water company to do away altogether with the possibility
of a recurrence of this evil. Many of the water mains
have already been laid at a lower depth, more will be done
during the present year, and the remainder nest year.