The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-02 00:00:00

SANITARY REFORM.

Last night, in pursuance of a requisition addressed to
the churchwardens and overseers of St. George the Mar-
tyr's, Southwark, a meeting was held at the Parochial
School House, Borough-road. On the motion of Mr. J.
Lee Stevens, Mr. Robert Archer, one of the church-
wardens, was voted into the chair. The requisition,
which was signed by 26 persons, the majority of whom
were connected with the medical profession, was couched
in the following terms :
" We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the above parish,
fully impressed with the importance of a strict observ-
ance being maintained of the principles that influence th(
Legislature of this kingdom iu granting sanitary reform.
and which are so forcibly expressed by Mr. Chadwick,
one of the members of the Metropolitan Sewers Commis-
sion, That all smell from sewers, if it be intense, is at-
tended with immediate acute disease ; and that eventu-
ally, by depressing the system and rendering it sus-
ceptible to the action of other causes, all smell is disease;
and having observed, therefore, with concern
and dismay, the system that is now being pur-
sued of allowing the noxious compounds of putrefaction
generated in the sewers of this vast metropolis freely to
mix with the atmosphere we breathe—request you will
take the necessary steps to convene a public meetin;
in this parish, in order to consider what measures should
be adopted to put a stop to a nuisance in every respect
calculated to engender an unusual amount of sickness
and disease."

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said
that the matter they had to discuss was the complaint
which was made of the opening of -the sewers into the
public road.. The evils which arose from the traps no one
could doubt; and he had often asked himself whether
the Commissioners of Sewers could have any regard
for the public health, in the system which they pursued.
The cases of danger to the public health from the efflu-
vium arising from the sewers abounded so, that they
needed no further evidence of the evil. The question
of the sewers was one which they had to discuss, and he
hoped gentlemen would confine themselves to the ques-
tion, whether these apertures lately made by the Com-
missioneis had not produced alarming consequences,
and whether they were not highly prejudicial to the
public health.
Mr. SOLLY (chemist) said that the first time his at-
tention had been called to those foul-air escapes was
passing over one of them, near the Elephant and Castle,
lately ; the effect produced upon him was sickness, fol-
lowed by a severo headache, which lasted for several
days. When he found that the Commissioners were
about to put down one of the noxious gas escapes near
him he became alarmed, and ho found the result was but
too severe with one member of his family. He found
there was a continuance of disease in his family as long
as there was an east wind prevailing, because then the
noxious effluvium was thrown into his dwelling, and
when the wind shifted to the westward then his family
got rather better. But the whole neighbourhood wr:s
deluged with fever, and the medical men were worn off
their legs. The speaker here read a letter from W.
Mutre Farebrother, surgeon, of the London-road, bear-
ing his testimony to the propriety of the object for
which the meeting had been convened, and condemning
the opening of the gratings of the metropolitan drains,
by which a vast amount of sickness was produced
from the pestilential miasma thus raised. Now he
(Mr. Sony) must observe that the only question was
whether wo were to be visited by the cholera at the end
of this year, or the beginning of the next ? It there.
fore behoved all men to put their shoulder to the wheel
to keep it away, if possible. He held in his hand a
letter from Dr. Barlow, of Union-street, who expressed
a strong opinion against the present system of ventilating
drains. That plan could not fail to produce a quantity
of noxious gases, which, when evolved, must have the
most prejudicial effect on those who were exposed to
them. Ho quoted several passages from the Lances
bearing on the subject, and concluded by moving the
first resolution, which was to the following effect:—
" That, fully concurring in the opinions expressed by
Mr. Edwin Chadwick (now one of the Commissioners of
Sewers for the Metropolis), in his evidence before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on the
Metropolitan Sewage Manure Company's Bill, viz.:—
That all smell from sewers, if it be intense, is attended
. .

with immediate acute disease; and that eventually by
depressing the system and renderidg it susceptible to
the action of other causes, all smell is disease;' this
meeting views with alarm the plan adopted by the Me-
tropolitan Commissioners of Sewers for the ventilation of
sewers, by which the noxious gases formed in the pro-
cess of putrefaction in those receptacles of nightsoil and
other animal and vegetable matter are emitted in a con-
centrated form, and mix with the atmosphere in danger-
ous proximity both to residents and passengers."
Mr. RENDLE (parish surgeon) rose to second the reso-
lution. It might be thought, perhaps, invidious that the
requisition should have been signed by so many medical
men. It certainly was signed by medical men, who con-
sidered it a part of their duty not only to cure, but to
prevent disease, and their studies led them to investigate
the causes of disease. There could be no question that the
diffusion of noxious gases was a prevailing cause of dis-
ease. That fact unhappily need not be left to his testi-
mony alone, because he had the power to show from the
testimony of those persons who lived near or over those
sewers, what were the effects produced. Such an in-
quiry as they were entered upon was necessary, and more
necessary as the population increased. The effect of
knowing the causes of diseases aided them in removing
those causes of mischief and evil. The part of the reso-
lution which more decidedly bore on the question which
they had to discuss, was the opinion pronounced by Mr.
Chadwick, " that all smell from sewers, if it be
intense, is attended with immediate acute dis-
eases, and that eventually, by depressing the system
and rendering it susceptible to the action of other
eases, all smell is disease." Now he believed that
under the new arrangements of the commissioners all
water-closets must be emptied into the sewer through
the drains. This admitted the offensive material into
the sewers, and it was requisite that better means than
were used formerly should be a.?opted to keep those
noxious vapours arising from decomposed matter from
spreading among the people. Formerly, when the de-
posit was lodged is cesspools, every individual had to
look after his own.comfort; but now the noxious matter
was carried into the ..public streets. The .speaker pro-