The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-30 00:00:00

CITY COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS.

Yesterday, the commiesionen met, Mr. Deputy
PRACOCIL hi the chair.

SNI OFFICIR 01 NEALTIVB REPOIT ON THE CM:OLIVA.
The annual report of the Officer of Health (Mr. Simon)
was lad before the Corainiasionen. It was of immense

length, and Om following is only a mere suransary oirts
MI plats

Me. dims reported the number of deaths which had
taken Sue to the fifty-two weeks previous to Michaelmas
lut at SAM, being 26 fewer then in the last preceding
dyads, peeled. As the population of the City was about
130,,000, die average rate of mortality during the lest five
yywwee Milan twenty-four per thousand per annum. The
haallblsN ealmilstrict (the north-west sub-district of the
West Lewin Union) showed a death-rate of only eighteen
in the thessand ; whereas, in the unhealthiest (the north-
west enb-distriet of the City of London Union) it was above
twenty-nine per thousand. The lowest death•rate which
had been obtained in any largely populated district
throughout the country during the term of seven years was
fourteen, or lees than one-half of that in the worst sub-

. .
district within the jurisdiction of the commissioners. The
average deativrate amongst all the City population above
five years of age was nearly 17 per thousand, while for
children under five years it was nearly eighty-five per
annum. The annual rate of death per thousand persons
in the different unions had been as follows:
Overfly. years. Under five years.
East London 16.68 .... 91.99
West London 20.58 .... 94.84
City of London 15.08 .... 71.72

Average 16.85 .... 84.72
To the annual average of 3,120 deaths, typhus had con-
tributed 140; choleraic affections (including the epidemic
of 1849), 196; scarlet fever, 76 ; small pox, 40 ; erysipelas,
30 ; the acute, nervous, and mucous diseases of children,
672; then measles, hooping cough, and croop, 82; so that
diseases of infancy alone had yielded an avenge of 1,242
deaths, or nearly two-fifths of the entire mortality. It was
a curious fact that while in the healthier districts the
winter was the most fatal time of the year, in consequence
of the ravages which inclement weather made upon the
aged and feeble, those ravines were completely overmastered
in the unhealthiest districts, and the rate of mortality was
highest in summer. The unfavourable effects of civilised
land City life upon the health was shown by the circumstance
1 that not one.eighth of the 15,597 persons who had died
within the jurisdiction of the commissioners during the last
five years had reached the threescore years and ten which
are allotted to man.
Fusing from atatistics to the prospects of the City during
the apprehended visitation of cholera, Mr. Simon congra-
tulates the commissioners on the fact that there had been a
diminution of mortality to the extent of four per cent. since
the sanitary acts of the City had come into operation ; and
he trusted that the abolition of Smithfield would lead to
still more favourable results. Yet their anticipations of
the future were pregnant with gloom. The cholera was
stealing upon the metropolis in precisely the same manner
as it had done upon both its former visitations, and they had
only too much reason to dread the results that would follow
the approach of summer.
With respect of the question of low levels, it must not be

supposed that that was the only condition predisposing a
legality to the ravages of the epidemic. The sub-district of
Bt. Peter's, Hammersmith, averaged only 4 feet above the
high water level, and that of St. Olave, Southwark, was
ten feet higher. Yet the cholera mortality in the former
had been only eighteen in the thousand, whereas that of
the latter had risen to 196. So also within their own juris-
diction. Side by side along the river lay four of their sub-
district.; three at the elevation of 21 feet, one at the ele-
vation of 24 feet. The cholera mortality, if simply pro-
portioned to levels, should have been nearly the same for
these fear subdistrict., and somewhat less in the last one
than in the first thiee. But the contrary was the fact; for
in two of these sub-districts the cholera mortality for equal
numbers of population was 44 times as great as in the other
two, where, however, to lowness of situation were added
density of population and improper or deficient drainage,
the cholera made its home. Their present system of tidal
drainage was exceedingly prejudicial. At low water the
filth was allowed to trickle over broad belts of spongy bank,
exhaling poison ; and at high water it was driven back into
the sewers to soak into the surrounding brickwork and
earth, and to send forth pestilential effluvia through %eery
gully hole. Persons who lived en the higher levels might
care nothing for this, but the prevalence of an infantile
sickness of unusual malignity, or a doctor's injection to
seek a change of air, that they, too, were subject to the
partial workings of that gigantic poison bed which they had
contributed to maintain. Lowness of situation, overcrowding,
and bad drainage, then, were the chief conditions which
rendered a locality obnoxious by the inroads of the pesti-
lence ; but there were, of course, other causes that would
operate to an important extent in the same manner.
Amongst those were, of course, want of proper ventilation,
an inefficient water supply, personal uncleanliness, an habi-
tually detective diet, and the like.
The precautionary measures recommended by Mr. Simon
were capable of being summed up in a single word—cleaa-
fines., in the fullest extent of the term. The state of the
docks, and particularly that of Whitefriars,would become of
the greatest importance; and the condition of all the
sewers should be certified to the commissioners—the grand
test of successful sewerage lying in the inodoroue discharge
of its functions. The City was already well paved, but they
should take care that the scavengers and duetmen care-
fully performed their functions. Great vigilance should be
exercised as to the condition of slaughterhouses and other
similar places ; and no disturbance of the earth should be
allowed to take place that could possibly be avoided. He
deeply regretted that they could not compel a continuous
supply of water, but at least there should be a daily filling
of the ciaternege, and Sunday should form no exception to
the rule. It would surely be no heathen's part
to urge 'that the Christen's Sabbath suffered
more desecration from the filth and preventible
unwholesomeness of many thousand households than in the
honest industry of a dozen turncocks. He was glad to
learn from the engineer of the New River Company that
they expected very shortly to be able to furnish the City
with a largely increased and practically exhaustless supply.
The subject of the City pumps was an important one • for
the quality of the water dept tided upon the state of the
gathering-grounds of each, and they were for the most part
saturated with impurities. It might, however, be to some
extent improved by the use of filters competed of animal
charcoal. The City had already established a system of in-
spection, and within the last year not fewer than 3,147 visi-
tations had been made, and 983 orders for the abstemeat of
nuisances had been obtained. A recent increme of the staff
from four to six would of course materially add to its effi-
ciency'; and he calculated that the inspectors would be able
to visit in each of the five more important districts from
100 to 120 houses, besides attending to their other
duties. He recommended that printed notices
should, during the prevalence of the epidemic,
be posted in every back street, court, and alley,
and renewed every month, advising the careful mainte- 1
nonce of cleanliness, and invitingcomplaintsas to nuisances.
He also suggested that circulars be sent to the clergy, the
beads of visiting societies, and the like, desiring them to
communicate with the officers of the commissioners on any
local uncleanliness which might come to their knowledge.
Mr. Simon, after strongly advising all persons to quit the
tainted districts—a course of proceeding that might have
a very beneficial effect in Producing reform, proceeded to
give a quantity of advice as to the course to be adopted by
audividuals during the epidemic. He strongly advised each
person, on the appearance of the premonitory symptoms, to
seek the advice of their own medical attendants, in prefer.
ence to relying on any published formu:a. His advice with
respect to avoiding excess, damp sad cold, over fatigue, and
the like, was not dissimilar to that already given to the
public; and he at length concluded by expressing the neces-
sity of a complete and comprehensive reform extending to
the whole metropolis.
The report was received and ordered to be printed, and
taken into consideration at a future court. !

MUSIC.