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6
was in active operation, the smell was faint and disagreeable, but
not very strong,
2. The emptying the purifiers into a pit. After the gas has
passed the mixture of ammoniacal liquor and sulphuric acid, it
traverses the purifiers, containing wet lime. The object of this
process being to take from the gas the carbonic acid and the sulphuretted
hydrogen, When the wet lime of the purifiers becomes
charged, (that is to say, incapable of taking from the gas any more
sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid,) the contents of the purifiers,
viz.: wet lime loaded with sulphuretted hydrogen, are discharged
into an open pit, having an area of about thirty feet square,
which is continually sending forth an effluvium of sulphuretted
hydrogen, and at the time of the discharge of the purifiers the
nuisance is so great that the persons residing near the works
declare that they have suffered from headache, giddiness, and sickness
in consequence of it. All metallic objects in their houses have
become tarnished, and a clean silver spoon will become black in
twenty-four hours. The emptying of the two purifiers takes place
alternately every eight or nine hours.
The only way of putting an end to this nuisance would be to
closely cover the pit, and carry the noxious fumes into the shaft, or
to use oxyde of iron instead of wet lime as a purifier. I must add,
that within the last few days, according to the statement of the wife
of one of the complainants, made to me on the 31st January, and
repeated by the complainant himself on 3rd February, the nuisance
has, since my visit to the works, been much abated.
Mortality in Rotherhithe during the month of January, 1856.
The average number of deaths in Rotherhithe from all causes,
according to the statement of the Registrar is about one hundred and
ten in three months, making thirty-six and a fraction ½ per month.
I am happy to say that during the last month the mortality was
under the average, the death of thirty-two persons only having been
registered. Indeed, the parish during the past month has been
much healthier than it usually is at this season of the year. The
death of only one person above the age of 70 has been recorded,
(a man in Clark's Orchard, aged 81). Now, January being
the coldest month in the year, is generally considered a dangerous
month to old people, for the number of deaths among the aged
invariably increases with the lowering of the temperature. The
weather in the middle of the month was much milder than usual.
The prevalent diseases have been, pneumonia, bronchitis and acute
rheumatism. There have been four deaths from scarlatina, three
from hooping cough, and two from small pox, one a female, aged 40,
near the "Jolly Caulkers," the other a child, aged twelve months, in
Upper Queen Street. I could not ascertain whether these persons
had been vaccinated or not. There has also been a death from