The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-09 00:00:00

ONDON, FRIoAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1849.

Iliving in our impression of Wednesday consi-
dered that portion of the able and most valuable
rep >rt of Mr. Sfmos to the City Sewers Commis-
sioners which relates to the subject, of drainage, we
now proceed with our observations on the other por-
tions of this most important document. With regard
to the supply of water, without an adequate supply of
which, drainage is physicalky impossible, Mr. SIMON

say s—
" In the city of London the supply of water is but a
fraction of what it should be. Thousands of the popula-
tion have no supply of it to houses where they dwell."
Ant he afterwards proceeds to point out the chief

conditions in respect of water supply which peremp-
torily require to be fulfilled: these are—
" 1. That every house should be separately supplied
with water, and that where the house is a lodging-
house, or where the several floors are let as separate
tenemi uts,the supply of water should extend to each

inhabited floor. -
" 2. That evary privy should have a supply of water
applicable as often as it may be required, and sufficient
in volume to effect at each application a thorough
flushing and purification of the discharge pipe of the

privy.
" 3. That in every court, at the point remotest from
the sewer grating, there should bo a stand cock for the
cleansing of the c)ur,; and
" 4. That at all these points there should always and
uninterruptedly be a sufficiency of water to fulfil all
reasonable requirements of the population."
It is manifest that it is to the River Thames, and
the River Thames alone, that we must look for a
supply of water sufficient to fulfil the above condi-
tions. The wells of London, Artesian and others,
decrease in depth, it is said, at the rate of two feet
annually, and are therefore manifestly inadequate to
the supply of even the present limited demand ; while
the water companies derive in some instances all, in
every instance a portion of, their supply from the
Thames. Here then is another reason for insisting
on the necessity of maintaining the stream
of the Thames free from pollution, and of
at once rejecting every system of sewerage
which does not preserve the river pure and uncon-
taminated. Mr. Staicav then proceeds to consider the
subject of offensive and injurious trades and occupa-
tions, and recommends that the slaughtering of cattle
within the city of London, and all its attendant
abominations, naming more particularly as one of
them sheds and stalls for the continued keeping of
cattle, should be suppressed. This recommendation,
of course, involves the immediate abolition of Sniith-
field-market. Mr. SIMON thus disposes of a fallacy
on which the learned Thebans who have a vested
interest in stinks have of late placed much reliance.

He says—
" Before leaving this subject, I think it right very
briefly to allude to toe argument which is often objected
to the view hero stated. The objector looks to a parti-
cular district, or to a particular slaughter- house, and
says that the mortality:of the district is an averaga one, or
he points to Mr. A or Mr, B, the butcher, or the butcher's
man, saying, " Who cal be healthier than A or B ?
Surely, if the pursuit be injurious, these men ought to
have teen poisoned long ago.' Now, to this I reply
first, as riards the men employed in these crafts, we
have no statistics of any value to decide on their morta
lity, and ji,lgment on the matter cannot be deduced from
seune halt-elcaen cases ; but, further, if we admit (which
I by no means know to be the case) that they are persons
of average longevity and healthiness, then it must be
remembered that their activity, their cut-door exercise,
their high wages, and, above all, their unlimited supply of
animal food, are circumstances conducing to give them
health beyond the average of their station; and it must
be !remembered that these palliating circumstances,
though they msy counteract the evil for those most
nearly concerned in it, contribute nothing towards
deodorising the neighbourhood, or towards preserving
its poorer inhabitants from the depressive influence of
putrid emanations.
" And, as regards the district—althongh we have cer-
tain evidence that organic decomposition is a chief cause
of disease, yf_t we do not invariably find disease gene--
rated in immediate proximity to the source of nuisance.
" Drainage beneath the soil, and currents of air above
it, convey the materials of decomposition to a distance;
and if the particular slaughterhouses be placed at a high
I -yel amidst the urrouncJing city,: so that their drainage
be effectual and their ventilation complete, then it will
be obvious to any candid inquirer, that their influence
must be sought for not so much in any special aggrava-
tion of the local mortality as in certain remoter effects
of their diffused emanation; in effects, namely, which are
discoverable along their lines of drainage and ventilation,
and in the various consequences of a highly zymotic
atmosphere generrlly through the entiretown."
He likewise proposes to prohibit the carrying on in
the city of London tallow-melting, whalebone boil-
ing, gas-making, and other similar trades which, if
not absolutely injurious to life, are, in the language
of the law, nuisances. As Mr. SIMoN justly observes—
"lt is the common right of the neighbourhood to
breathe an uncontaminated atmosphere ; and with this
common right such nuisances must be considered to
clash. It might be an infraction of personal liberty to
interfere with a proprietor's right to make offensive
smells within the limits cf his own tenement, and for his
own separate inhalation; but surely it is a still greater
infraction of personal liberty, when the proprietor, en-
titled as he is to but a joint use of an atmosphere which
is the common property of his neighbourhood, assumes
what is equivalent to a sole possession of it, and claims
she right of diffusing through it some evanescent efflu-
vium
which others equally with himself are thus obligedi\ir
to inhale."
inhale."
On the subject of intramural interments,
StmoN gives it unhesitatingly as his conviction, after
baying examined as fully as circumstances would
allow into the requirements of the city of London in
respect of burial accommodation, " that the City can
no longer with safety or propriety be allowed to fur-
nish intramural Interment to its dead." Public opi-
nion, we believe, is all but unanimous in declaring
that all intramural grave-yards should he immediately
closed; but there are still some persons who believe
that the burial in vaults of bodies enclosed in metallic
coffins might be permitted without danger. To
all such we recommend the attentive perusal of the
following remarks of Mr. Simms; on this subject :
" With respect to burial in vaults, which prevails to a