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

,vt All _ ItAto
LONDON. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1849.

iiaving in our impression of Wednesday consi-
derel that portion of the able and most valuable
reprt of Mr. SIMON 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 physically impossible, Mr. SIMON

fICS-

" In the city of London the supply of water is but a
frac ion of what it should be. Thousands of the popula-
tion have no supply of it to houses where they dwell."
An I 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
tenements, the supply of water should extend to each
inh,bited floor.
" 2. That every privy s':ould have a supply of water
applicable as often as it may be required, and sufficient
in vo,urne to cffeet at each application a thorough
ti.:shitig and purification of the discharge pipe of the
pricy.
" 3. That in every c-lirt, at the point remotest from
the sewer grating, there should be a stand cock for the
ch.anAing of the 000 r• g and
" 4. Twat at all these points there should always and
uninterruptetlly be a sufficiency of water to fulfil all
reasonable r,-quirmeuts of the population."
It is manifest that it i 3 to the River Thames, end
the River Thames alone, that we must look for a
supply of water sufficient to fulfil the above con ii-
Lions. The wells of London, Artesian and others,
&envie in depth, it is at the rate of two feet
annually, and are therefore nunif€'stly inadequate to
tha supply of even the present limited demand; while
the water companies derive in some instances all, in
c very instance a portion of, their supply from the '
then i= another reason for insisting
rn the necessity of maintaining the stream
of the Tisames free from pollution, and of
at once rejecting every system of sewerage
which does not preserve the river pure and uncon-
taminated. Mr. SIMON then proceeds to consider the
subject of oft.nsive 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 oae of
theta sheds and stalls fur the continued keeping of
ca'.tle, should be suppressed. This recommendation,
of ecurse, involves the immediate abolition of Suiith-
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.
lie says—

" Bifore leafing this sull'et, I think it right very
briefly to allude to an argument which is often obj,ctcd
to the view her, stated. The objector looks to a parti-
cular clistric!, or to a particular slaughter-house, and
• • that the mortality:of the district is an average one, or
a 3
he points to Mr. A er Mr. 13, the butcher, or the butcher's
man, suintr, " Who can be healthier than A or B ?
surely, if' the pursuit be injuriou3, these man ought to
have been poisoned long ago.' .Nuw, to this I reply—
first, as regards the men employed in these crafts, we
have no statistics of any value to decide on their morta,
Jity, and jidgment on the matter cannot.be deduced from
some halt-dozen cases ; but, further, if we admit (which
I by no mean- know to he the case) that they ars persons
of a-verage longevity and healthiness, then it must be
seers= inhered that their ectivity, their out- door exercise,
ttoir high wages, and, above alt, their unlimited supply of
anitall too 1, arc circumstances conducing to give them
h, til;ti beyond the average of their station; and it must
be rrenaembered that theie palliating circumstances,
though they may counteract the evil for those most
nearly concerned in it, contribute nothing towards
de tdorizing the neighbourhood, or towards preserving
its poorer inhabitants from the depressive influence of
putrid emanations.
" And, as regards the district—although we have cer-
tain evidence that organic decomposition is a chief cause
of disease, yr t we do net invariably find disease gene
rated in imm-diate proximity to the source of nuisance.
" Drainage beneath the soil, and currents of air abeve
it, convey the materials of decomposition to a distance;
anal-if the particular slaughterhouses be placed at. a high
1 vel amidst the surroute4ing, city,•• so that /heir drainage
be effectual and their ventilalon 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 atonality as in certain remoter effects
f their diffused emanation; in effects, namely, which are
discoverable along their lines of drainage and ventilation,
and in the various consequences of a highly zymetic
atmosphere generrily through the entire town."
lie 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. StsgoN justly observes—
"lt is the common right of the neighbourhood to
breathe in 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 of his own tenement, and for his
own separate inhalation; but surely it is a still greater
infraction of personal liberty, when the proprietor, en-
titlod 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 solo possession of it, and claims
tire right of diffusing through it some evanescent efflu
v:um which others equally with himself are thus obliged
to inhale."
On the Eubject of intramural interments, Air:
SIMoN gives it unhesitatingly as his conviction, after
having 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 he 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 be 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. Sums on this subject :
"with respect to burial in vaults, will** prevails to a