The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-12 00:00:00

N E WS PAPER

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CITY SEWERS COMIIIISSIO-T. -- ~,,.'--,;;.:- cs.,
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The Commissioners of Sewers resumed thvalli
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1
meetings yesterday, ar Guildhall ; Mr. Deputy cz4rt'_ _ „„ir.: k,)
Deputy
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in the chair. -4, - ''--- A t,_.';, 9% 'T
A deputation waited on the court with a memo icr , ,
by numerous inhabitants of St. Paurs-ehurehyarnamue -ii S
vicinity, praying that some measures might be tlikc;ll and
vent a nuisance being caused by the rebuilding of 'd the
wises belonging to Messrs. Knight and Son, whicients
burnt down a few nights since, for the purpose of car,dis.
on the tallow melting business.
rig
Mr. Deputy FARRER moved that it be referred to
Improvement Committee to consider and report upon. rd
Dr. LETREEY, the medical officer of health, submitti,e
his report on the sanitary condition of the City. He stateC,
that 251 houses had been inspected during the week, 355
visits made to the common lodging-houses of the City since
the last meeting of the court, and he submitted a list of 96
places for sanitary improvement. He likewise reported
that the markets and slaughter-houses had been duly in-
spected, and that the officers had seized about 4 tons of
meat, besides 13 quarters of venison, 100 head of game and
poultry, and 270 pine apples, as unfit for human food. Most
of the meat was seized in Newgate-market ; the game and
poultry in Leadenhall, and the pineapples in the streets of
•
the City. The meat consisted of 41 sheep, 13 pigs, 65 guar
ters of beef, and 91 joints. Nearly two tons of it was
diseased, about a ton and a quarter putrid, and the rest
was from animals that had died from natural causes. All
the game, poultry, and fruit were in a putrid condition,
and was destroyed as unfit for human food.
The mortality returns for the last six weeks are below
the average for the season, for only 200 deaths are recorded
in place of 300, which is the mean proportion for the corre-
sponding period of the last five years. 117, or nearly half
of the deaths, were among children of less than five years
of age, and 51 were among old persons of 60 and upwards.
The chief causes of death were as follows :—Fhthisis, 33 ;
mesenteric diseases of children, 2; hydrocephalus, 8; con-
vulsions in infancy, 11; pneumonia, 22 ; and bronchitis. 11.
Among the zymotic class of diseases there were the follow-
ing :—Continued fever, 5 ; scarlet fever, 9 ; erysipelas, 4 ;
whooping cough, 12 ; croup and diphtheria, 4; diarrbcra
of adults, 5 ; and infantile diarrhoea, 20. The last-named
maladies have not been so prevalent as usual, for in the
course of the corresponding weeks of the last five years the
average proportion of deaths was double.
Three hundred and thirty-seven births have been regis-
tered during the six weeks, and of these 183 were boys, and
154 girls.

THE GAS SUPPLY IN THE CITY.

Dr. Letheby submitted his quarterly report of the illu-
minating power and chemical quality of the gas supplied
by the Great Central Consumers' Company, from which it
appears that 315 experiments on the illuminating power of
the gas have been made during the quarter. These expe-
riments have been made at two places, viz., at the college
laboratory of the London Hospital, and at the City Labo-
ratory in Finsbury-square. The results of the testings are
as follows :—At the first-named place, the mean illumi-
nating power of the gas has been equal to 11.11 sperm
candles, or 12.69 wax, each of 12 grains consumption per
hour ; and at the second, it has been equal to 10.89 sperm,
or 12.44 wax—the difference of the two places, which are
nearly two miles apart, being two -tenths of a candle.
These results show that the illuminating power of gas has
been equal to the standard of the Great Central Act of Par-
liament, and also that the power has been permanent, not-
withstanding that the gas has traversed many miles of main.
The chemical quality of the gas has likewise been equal to
the requirements of the act, for the gas has always been
free from sulphurated hydrogen, and has not contained an
excess of ammonia. He had to direct the attention of the
court to a matter of great importance to the gas consumers
of the City. Public notice had been given by the three
companies who supply the City with gas of their intention
to adopt the provisions of the Metropolis Gas Act of 1860.
These previsions differ very materially from the provisions of
the Great Central Act, which was now in force in the City of
London, and will affect both the quality and the price of
the gas. Hitherto the gas of but one company (the Great
Central) has been the subject of Parliamentary regulation,
and has been officially examined in the City; but from the
circumstance of active competition those regulations in re-
spect of quality and price have controlled the supply of
gas by the other companies. Now, however, that influence
is to be removed by the adoption of the Metropolis Act,
the spirit of competition will be set aside, and in place of it
there will be fixed conditions of supply, which are confided
to that court for fulfilment. According to the terms of the
Great Central Act of 1851, it is provided that the illumi-
nating power of the gas shall be of such quality as to pro-
duce from an argand burner having 15 holes and a seven
inch chimney, and consuming five cubic feet of gas per
hour, a light equal in intensity to the light produced by 12
wax candles of six to the pound ; and such gas shall b©
superior in purity to the gas in common use, supplied at or
about the 7th day of Dec., 1849, by any of the companies
who then lighted the city of London or any part thereof
with gas. But according to the Metropolis Act of 1860,
which is about to be adopted, the illuminating power of the
gas is raised about 14 per cent., for when burnt in the way
mentioaed it is to be equal to 12 sperm candles instead of
12 wax, and as regards purity, it shall be so far free from
ammonia and su'phuretted hydrogen, that it shall, not
discolour either tumeric paper, or paper imbrued into ace-
tate or carbonate of lead when those tests are exposed to a.
current of gas issuing for one minute under a pressure of
five-tenths of an inch of water, and shall not contain more
than twenty grains of sulphur in any form in one hundred
cubic feet of gas. While, therefore, the illuminating
power of the gas has been raised about one-seventh, the
purity of the gas has been more accurately defined. It
would rest with the court to watch over the provisions, and
to secure their fulfilment. He ventured to suggest, how-
ever, that on the adoption of the act, there should be a
liberal interpretation of its clauses, so that on the one hand
there should be no needless impediment offered to the testing
of the gas wherever you should consider it necessary, and on
the other hand there should be no strict binding to each
day's quality of gas, but a fair average of the weekly sup-
ply. This is my mode of proceeding at present, and the
Great Central Company have unhesitatingly agreed to abide
by my testings in this manner at your laboratory in Fins-
bury-square. I trust that the other companies will do like-
' wise ; for it will be impossible to decide fairly on the quality
of any gas without a systematic and continuous series of
investigations, such as are now made on your behalf for the
Great Central Company."
Mr. Deputy HOLT moved that the report be referred to
the General Purposes Committee, and observed that he
thought it would not be long before the corporation made
their own gas.
The resolution was agreed to ; and

Mr. Deputy HARRISON moved that the report be printed,
and a copy be sent to each member of the court, and that
50 copies be sent to the Metropolitan Board of Works.
This was also agreed to, and the court adjourned.

THE ENFIELD RIFLE.—In the completed Enfield
rifle there are not less than 61 separate and distinct portions ;
and yet if 100 or 1,000 of such rifles were first to be put to-
gether, afterwards dismembered, and then to hae their vari-
ous items of component and furniture intermingled in wan-
ton and indiscriminate confusion, a workman might unite
all the parts, without fear of any of them misfitting, at the
rate of one rifle in three minutes. In compassing this result
on the large scale in which it is accomplished at Enfield,
upwards of 800 machines and approaching 2,000 hands—
young and old—are employed. 350 finished rifles per day is
the maximum rate of production ; and upon each rifle there
are expended nearly 800 separate processes of manipulation.
—Mechanics' Magazine.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—A horrible acci-
dent took place on Monday forenoon at the Tyne Dock
Railway station, where on the level a branch of the North-
Eastern Railway crosses a turnpike-road. At this place an
elevated glass house has been erected, which commands a
view of the up and down lines and also the turnpike. A
gatekeeper stationed within it works an apparatus by
which he can open and close the gates, shutting off the rail-
way from the road. On Monday forenoon a man named
John Thompson drove up to the crossing with a horse and
cart and asked to pass. The gatekeeper had neglected to
keep a look-out for the express train to Shields, which was
due about the time, and worked his apparatus. The gate
had scarcely been opened when he saw the express train
coming down at full speed. There is a rapid curve on the
tine that the engineman cannot see any object on a
level with this crossing, and is entirely at the mercy of the
gatekeeper. The latter shouted frantically to Thompson to
back his horse, but he was too late. The poor fellow had
only time to jump off his cart and run to his horse's head,
when the train thundered down upon him. He was thrown
under the wheels and killed on the spot. The horse was torn
to pieces and the cart completely shattered. The train kept
on its way, and reached the South Shields Railway station
without any serious injury to the passengers.
THE WARDENSHIP OF THE CINQUE PORTS.
From the Conquest to the reign of Henry VIII. the
country at large had no navy, the maritime defence of the
kingdom being all along entrusted to the " good men and
true" of the Cinque Ports, who were bound jointly to fit
out, at their own cost, such armaments as were wanted
from time to time. Such being the case (the army and
navy not being as yet separate services), the Warden of
the Cinque Ports held really, to some extent, the modern
post of Minister or Secretary at War, and formed part of the
executive of the nation; and accordingly it is still a pre'
scriptive rule that no one but a privy councillor' is capable
ward
of being nominated to that office. In the reign of Ed 1•
the Ports, we find, were ordered. to supply jointly a 11._d
!et of
t he
57 sail, fully equipped for 15 days' service ; but mo to
reign of Edward 111. the respective quota was ,
'o assign
each port and its membersr tributary towns ;
an
Eng-
lish history teems with si miler exampl.es• The gradual
organisation has,
rise of the British navy anel its permanent
of course, rendered obsolete the naval services of the
ancient palatinate of the Oinque Ports, and, indeed, even
if such had the same result would have
followed from h
epZ. see,
yslcal changes which have come
nottbe been
greatn th
over the ports and harbours bythe change of the coast line;
even f, New" Roinneri
and
known to history 8/4 the " Sandwich—the latter once well
port of London"—being now
separated fror,n the sea by a mile or two of alluvial
deposit, to say T..tothing of Winchilsea, which is now re-
markableb:pt
i for Tittle but its ecclesiastical antiquitios.—Oncg
a Wok