The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-23 00:00:00

THE DRAINS A2' BRIGHTON.

The following letter appears in the Lancet:—
"Two months ago I took a house in one of those
fine eastern terraces facing the sea at Kemptown,
Brighton. The abundant rain which had fallen
probably prevented me from detecting any disa-
greeable smell at the time, and the agent, in reply
to my inquiries, told me that the drainage was ex-
cellent; In the course of a fortnight, however, I
began to be annoyed by foul effluvia from the
drains, and soon afterwards the cook was prostrated
with fever, and confined to her bed during a space
of ten days. My children and servants sickened in
succession, and were attacked with headache, sick-
' ness, and febrile derangements, clearly attributable
to poisonous atmospheric agency. Examination
showed that the drainage of the house was
wretchedly imperfect. My youngest child did not,
unhappily, escape so lightly as the rest of my
household, and I have just brought her back to
London, suffering from a most severe form of dip-
theria, which, I need not tell your readers, arises
almost invariably from bad drainage. I immediately
wrote to the agent, and when stating the circum-
stances warned him of the responsibility he incur-
red in again letting the house until the condition
of the drains had been thoroughly investigated. In
reply he stated, ' I have made every inquiry into
the state of the drains and water-closets, and find
them unobjectionable.' On receiving this stereo-
typed answer, I sought an interview with the late
Mayor, who is a fellow-practitioner, and asked his
assistance. He told me there was no officer of public
health at Brighton. He admitted the objectionable
state of the drainage of the town, and told me he
had been for years urging the subject on the atten-
tion of the Town Council, but in vain. As I could
eek i,, sve emri
following aa inl
n boccasionse hpaaon inves-
tigate out, t
p,
othwte
ehre,Council
subject;and
althoughe e u but
pldo
iliehtnnee ddahaaoc
offer no evidence that the evil complained of ex-
tended beyond the house, he could not render me
I appealed to Dr. Farr, at
any assistance. I next appealed for advice to Mr.
• Simon, at the Board of Health in London. He told
The Registraradds, me Brighton had not put itself under the jyrisdic-
tion of the London Board. If an epidemic broke
had on
nilhlsmi
alluded to the bad drainage of Brighton in his re-
port, the evil, he was well aware, still remained
ages from a recent report of the Reist rar-
General :--, The mortality in man—
J of thetowns
has been excessively high, and this been notably
the case in Brighton. To take one '
deaths (386) exceeded the births ( instance, the
3'17) in St. Peter's,
susnomaletnereethouteas;tlL
' The inhabitants
of this sub-district are chiefly
and the labouring poor. artisans, mechanics,
Brighton. T
a very insufficient In many of their dwel-
lingsavailable to them, supply of water has been
owing to the dryness of the
weather in the first
portion of the quarter, the water
in the wells in use having been very low. There
is no effectual drainage attached to their dwellings,
and the cesspool system is in general use.' In my
communications with these gentlemen I have met
with much
sympathy, but no redress • and more
than one official authority has told me redress;
for the
latter I must appeal to public opinion through the
press. It is, then, to assist the energetic local re-
formers, who are anxious to improve the sanitary
state of Brighton, and render it one of the most
healthy and (as I believe it to be) desirable real-
dences during the autumn months, that I appeal,
sir, to you, even at the risk of damagini for the
moment the pecuniary interests of the lodging
house keepers during this season, when the town 1$
agF
overflowing with fashionable society-
he professioee
n
that as long as Brighton fills, and the P rate-
recommend it as an autumn residence,
f makin sewers
payers will not incur the expense 0 . _
d 1 landlords
in place of cesspools, nor will indivi ua
even trap the old ones."
-............""11

111M..........____ _
rILOGRF.:3S or ENGLIsii ART NANUFACTURES.—" To
the intending purchese r of so important an article of per-
ii irti3:o,oitt iNsviotfhsoinhieesiommpoorretatnacsototfoulblye
sonal adornment andnittit3,
informed where he
and be thus saved the annoyance and
embellitimshed watchct',
loss of eof a fruitless search. To such we shall be doing
a service by informing them that the show-rooms of Mr. J.
W. Benson, of 33 and 34, Ludgate-hill, contain a rare and
most extensive stock of watches, ornamented with exceed-
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perfection of workmanship, combined with the highest or-
sshow
and the
-rooms are
tahe
or omfoasrtt
di
ins
tei
nn ig
lib e
il
sl ihs
ohdmi enn t
the. DCity
B for
e spaciousnesson '
unexampled variety of his stack."—Morning
Benson's illustrated Pamphlet, post free for twoAci
yeetanirtisper.—
s 1 is
descriptive of every construction of ly tc
Watches cafe by post to all parts of the globe, nlobe7 made.