The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

render quite obvious to you the intention of those precau-
tionary measures which itlis now my duty to recommend. ,
" First, I would allude to inflvences of an exterior
and public kind; and, here, all that I have to advocate '
might be included in a single stipulation that cleanliness
in the widest sense of the word, should be enforced to the
full extent of your authority.
" Over the pollutions of the river and over its malarious
banks, exposed by the ebbing tide, you have no power.
" Whether, for the relief of your low-lying districts,
subject to imminent risk from causes I have described,
there can be found any temporary protection to save their
atmosphere from contamination is a question which you
will resolve upon other judgment than mine.
" Along the river bank there is one especial source of
nuisance, which has repeatedly been under your notice,
and which is likely to become of serious local import under
the presence of epidemic disease. I refer to the docks, and
chiefly to that of Whitefriars. I mention it particularly,
not only because the accumulations of putrid matter there
have often been alarmingly great, but likewise because at
the head of this dock, during the former invasion of cho-
lera, there was remarkable prevalence of the disease ; and
I can well remember how often the offensive condition of
the dock was accused, not unjustly, of contributing to the
mortality of the neighbourhood. The fetid materials,
floated into these several recesses of the river, and left
stranded there by the receding tide, have at times been so
copious as to produce very objectionable effects on the at-
mosphere which surrounds them; a,id I would beg leave
strongly to urge that such sources of nuisance should be
thoroughly and permanently removed.
" Further, from what I have said as to the conditions of
our vulnerability by cholera, you will be prepared to think
it of great importance that, during the next six months,
you should be certified on the state of your sewers, in every
part of the city, as to their greatest possible cleanliness and
least possible offensiveness o ventilation. Fifty miles of
sewer, reticulated through the city, sufficiently attest your
active desire to provide for the complete any continuous
carrying away of all excremental matters ; and you will
excuse me, I hope, in consideration of the anxieties of my
office. if I seem superflously cautious in reminding you that
the test of successful sewers lies in an inodorour fulfillment
of their duty, and that every complaint of offensive emana-
tions indicates, in proportion to its extent, a failure of that
sanitary object for which the construction was designed.
" There is one Precaution, always of great value to the
health of towns, and especially useful against any malari-
ous infection, which happily I find it needless to recom-
mend. The paving of all public ways within the city, in-
cluding every court and alley, is already so complete as to
constitute a very favourable point in our sanitary defences.
In order that this excellent arrangement may give its full
fruit, it will be requisite—though this again I need hardly
press on your consideration—that the duties of scavengers
and dustmen be thoroughly and punctually performed.
" Again, r would particularly advise that great vigilance
be exercised in all markets, slaughtering-places, and other
establishments under your jurisdiction, to prevent the re-
tention of refuse matters, animal or vegetable. I would
urge the strictest enforcement of all regulations which you
have made for the cleanliness of such places, and for the
removal of their putrefiable refuse.
"Likewise, I have to suggest that, after the month of
May, at latest, no disturbance of earth to any considerable
depth should be allowed to take place, either in your works
or in those of gas and water companies, except under cir-
cumstances of urgent necessity. In the lower levels of the
city, particularly, I conceive this prohibition to be a mat-
ter of paramount importance, because the soil, never of un-
exceptionable cleanliness in towns, is here especially apt to
be of offensive quality.
"On the subject of water in its general relations to the
city, I have only again to express my deep regret that it
lies out of your present power to compel a continuous sup-
ply, and that your means are restricted to choosing what
may best compensate for the absence of this sanitary boon.
It must be your aim to mitigate, as far as may be, the evils
that belong to an ill-regulated intermittent system in its
adaptation to the houses of the poor—evils which imply,
as I have often told you, not only much domestic dirt, but
likewise a frequent suspension of all efficiency in the drain-
age of innumerable houses. With a view to the best alter-
native for a continuous supply, I would recommend that at
least a daily filling of all cisternage takes place, and es-
pressly that Sunday form no exception to the advantages
of this rule. If a choice of evils must be made, I trust it
is no heathen's part to urge that the Christian Sabbath
suffers more desecration in the filth and preventable un-
wholesomeness of many thousand households than in the
honest industry.of a dozen turncock. I likewise submit
that it would be highly advantageous to the labouring,poor
most of whose domestic cleansing is reserved for the last
k day of the week, that on that day a second delivery of wa-
ter should take place at some hour of the afternoon,
" I wish it were in my power to tell your hon. court that
the supply of water in the city of London had become, in
quality, all that I think it might be rendered. Such as it
is, however, there depend other very important issues on its
being delivered in ample abundance for all the purposes of
' cleanliness ; and lam glad to have learned from the eminent
engineer of the New River Company that he has it in ex-
pectation very shortly .to be able to furnish the city a
largely increased and practically inexhaustible supply.
" The subject of water in its district relations ought
hardly to be passed without a word of caution as to the use
of pumps within the city. I need hardly inform you that
every spring of water represents the drainage of a certain
surface or thickness of soil, and that such as are the qua-
lities of this gathering ground, such must be the qualities
of the water. You will, perhaps, remember that in my-
account of one celebrated city pump, which sucks from be-
neath a churchyard, I showed you 90 grains of solid mat-
ter in every gallon of its water. In virtue of that wonder-
' ful action which earth exerts on organic matter, the former
contents of a coffin, here re-appearing in a spring, had un-
dergone so complete a change as to be insusceptible of fur-
ther putrefaction ' • the grateful coolness, so much admired
in the produce of that popular pump, chiefly depending
on a proportion of nitre which has arisen in the che-
mical transformation of human remains, and which,
being dissolved in the water, gives it, I believe, some
refrigerant taste and slightly diuretic action. Undoubtedly
this water is an objectionable beverage in respect of its
several saline ingredients; but my present object in ad-
verting to them is rather to illustrate an anterior danger
which they imply. Their presence indicates a comparative
completion of the putrefactive process, effected by the
uniform filtration of organic solutions through a porous
soil. Let that soil have frequent fissures in its substance ;
or let its thickness be scanty in proportion to the organic
matters to be acted on, and the water imperfectly filtered,
would run off foul andputrescent. Now, this risk, more or
less, belongs to all pumps within the city of London. They
draw from a ground excavated in all directions by sewers,
drains, cesspools, gas-pipes, and burial-pits. The immense
amount of organic matter which infiltrates the soil does,
undoubtedly, for the greater part, suffer oxydation and
pass into chemical repose; but in any particular case it is
the merest chance whether the glass of water raised to the
mouth shall be fraught only with saline results of de.;om-
position—in itself an objectionable issue--or shall contain
organic refuse in the active and infectious stage of its
earlier transformations. Some recent cutting of a trench,
or breakage of a drain, in the neighbourhood, may have
converted a draught, which before was chronicly uuwhole-
come, into one immediately perilous to life. These facts
ought to be known to all persons having custody of pumps
within urban districts, and it ought also to be known that
the infiltrative spoiling of springs may occur to the distance
of many hundred yards.*
„ ..

" In final reference to the quality of water, whether sup-
plied by our tradinc, companies, or derived from springs
within the city, Cthink it expedient to mention that,
against its lesser impurities, great protection is given by
filtration through animal charcoal, as in various filters and
purifiers which are before the public. These protective
means do not lie within reach of the poorer classes ; but,
whatever their accessibility to individuals, no such per-
sonal arrangements can render it less important that water,
the first necessary of life be supplied for universal use in
the utmost procurable purity.
"Beyond the above points, which are of general applica-
tion within the city, all your remaining precautions will
relate to the condition of private houses ; and of these, oc•
cupied by the poorer classes, there exist in the city some
thousands over which it will be requisite, by repeated in-
spection, to maintain an efficient sanitary watch. From
circumstances to which I have already referred, it appears
that your defences against cholera will very mainly consist
in removing causes of disease from within individual
houses, audit is only by an organised system of inspection
for detecting and removing every unclean condition, that
this object can be attained, For your encouragement in
this task I may venture to express my belief that, through-
ought a considerable portion of the city, the local affinities
for cholera are not too strong to be greatly modified and
obviated by such a system.

" With respect to-this important work of sanitary in-
spection, what I now propose is no new proceeding within
the city. More or les, since the date of my appointment—
but I hope with gradual increase of completeness and effi-
ciency—weekly visitations on a considerable scale have
been made, under my direction, by your four inspectors of
nuisances. Acting under your authority, and guided by
what information I could obtain on the existence of endemic
disease in your several districts,* I have furnished the in-
spectors every week with a variable list of the houses,
ranging probably from 50 to 150 at a time, for their visita-
tion and inquiry. The information which I have directed
them to seek has referred of course to the various details of
sanitary condition, to questions of lodgment, ventilation,
cleanliness, drainage, water supply, dust removal, paving
of yard and cellars, existence of nuisances, and the like;
and I have constructed tabular forms for their use which
admit of this information being recorded and reviewed in
the readiest manner week by week; before each meeting
of your Court I have had the habit of going through every
particular of these somewhat considerable details. I have
sorted out of them those very numerous cases in which
your lawful powers could be usefully exerted; when I
have deemed, it- necessary, I have myself made visits of
verification or inquiry ; and have finally laid before you,
in the form which is familiar to your weekly meetings,
such recommendations as the week's survey has shown ne-
cessary, for enforcing works of local improvement under
the powers of your acts of Parliament. I find that within
the last 12 months there have been made 3,147 visitations
of this nature, the results of which are recorded in your
office ; and, founded on the result of these inspections,
there have been issued 983 orders for the abatement of
causes of disease. ..

" I am very far from considering that these arrange.
ments have been perfect. Circumstances beyond my con-
trol have prevented me from constructing as complete an
organization. as I could wish ; and the fact that your in-
spectors are very largely employed in other duties has
perhaps ocicaSionally given some hurry and imperfection
to their share of the work. Still, such as it is, this system
has been the ,means of. considerable advantage; and I am
glad to be able to claim for your hon. Court the distinction
of being first in the metropolis to have established an ar-
rangement for the systematic sanitary visitation of the
dwellings of the poor. In relation to this subject, I beg
to inform your hon. Court that your inspectors have dis-
charged the duties which you authorized me to impose on
them with much zeal, intelligence, and industry.

"During the last, few weeks it has become obvious to
your hon. Court that the duties of this department of your
service have grown to such dimensions as to necessitate
some increase of your staff, and acting on this opinion,
mainly with a view to render more complete your sanitary
supervision of the city, you have just appointed two
additional inspectors of nuisances. In making this ap-
pointment you have determined not to restrict any two
or three inspectors exclusively to the business of house
inspection, but to allot the joint duties, sanitary and
surveying, equally among their number, parting
the area of the city into six instead of four
inspectors' districts, so that each inspector shall give
a certain proportion of time to the duties which he has to
fulfil under the surveyor's direction, and another certain
proportion to those in which he will be engaged under the
direction of the Officer of Health. It is only some experi-