The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-26 00:00:00

CESSPOOL NUISANCES.

Two persons, landlord and tenant of a house in
Fan-street, Biahopsgate, were charged by a police-
man with having caused a cesspool to be empited into
the common sewer, contrary to the Act.
The excuse made by the defendants did not at all
touch upon the main question, but merely called the
attention of the Court to the fact, that the drain had
been made by the proprietor of the premises ten
years ago, and that the rate had been raised upon him
notwithstanding.
The policeman said it was quite impossible to
describe the offensiveness of the stench occasioned all
complained.
Mr. neighbourhood by the act of which he
Mr. BLAKE said, upon the retirement of the parties
from the Court, that if the members failed to take
notice of the matter complained of there would be no
advantage derivable from the Act which had been
passed for the City, and other inhabitants would
follow their example, for the purpose of evading the
expense. He moved that the defendants be summoned
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The
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Haywood,
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such authority
the very subject which they were discussing, and he
time.

The Surveyor then put in the following report,
which was read by the Chief Clerk :
" To the Honourable tho Commissioners of Sewers of

the City of London, and the Liberties thereof.
"Sewers Office, Guildhall, April 24.
" Gentlemen,—l beg to bring under the notice and
consideration of your Honourable Court a nuisance of
a very serious description, the perpetration of which
has lately become a very frequent occurrence. I allude
to the practice of turning the contents of cesspools into
the sewers in an undiluted and undeodorised condition.

" Recently this has occurred very continually, and in
all cases has been with ill effects. It not unfrequently
happens that the whole contents of a cesspool, which has
been a dozen or more years accumulating, is all at once
turned into a sewer, and the whole neighbourhood is for
days poisoned by the stench which, despite the traps of
the gullies, finds its way into the streets and houses,
acd which is only abated by men being sent in to re-
move, and flush it away ; the effluvia is frequently so
bad from it, that men are with difficulty found to enter
the sewers for that purpose. It has also frequently oc-
curred, that sewers which had previously been per-
fectly clean, are for a., length of twenty or thirty feet
half filled with the soil thus turned into them, which, in
its undiluted state, is with difficulty removed, and the
expense of removal is generally double or treble what it
would have cost the offenders to have emptied the cess-
pool by, means of the engine• pump which you have pro-
vided for the use of the citizens for such purpose. About
this the offenders care very little, as once in the sewer,
they know it will be removed, and the expense has
hitherto been defrayed by this Commission.
" If cesspools are emptied into the sewers by means of
the cesspool pump, no ill effects are experienced; for, in
the first place, the contents are deodorized; and, in the
second place, are in that state of fluidity which will
enable it to mix with and be carried away by the ordi-
nary flow of the sewer. I beg to suggest to your
Honourable Court, as the only means of preventing this
offence, that you should make it imperative, and should
give notice to all persona making applications for drains,
to empty their cesspools before constructing any portion
of the drainage, and that the inlet to the seer thould
not be construct. d before the cesspofiol is properly cleansed,
eventand of
foathme
otoffebncee still in
s o ytionuyr ocfa
scee r
being nd
perpetrated,t ha t i n
the parties offending should be punished under th
clauses in the City Sewers Act for that purpose made
and provided.—l have the honour to be, gentlemen,
your most obedient servant,
" W3l. HAYWOOD, Surveyor."
Mr. liarwoon informed the Court that there were
five case which came under the class of offences
alluded to in his report within the last week.
The motion of Mr. BLAKE was agreed to unani-
pously, and the surveyors report was oldered to be
entered in the journals.