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

ARTMENT.

Government Debt £11,e15,/00
Other Securities .. 3.634,900
Gold Coin & Bullion 12,829,715
Silver Bullion ....

£27,47,715

rEPARTMENT.
Government Secu-
rities (including
1 Dead Wei,ghtAn-
nuity) £10,450,800
Other Securities 17,372,545
Notes
Gold and Silver 1 7,626,885

Coin 819,687

Z 36,289,917
.RSHALL, Chief Cashier.

CITY SEWERS COMMISSION.

The Commissioners of Sewers resumed their weekly
meetings yesterday, ar Guildhall ; Mr. Deputy CIrRisTIE
in the chair.

A deputation waited on the court with a memorial signed
by numerous inhabitants of St. Paul's-churchyard and its
vicinity, praying that some measures might be taken to pre-
vent a nuisance being caused by the rebuilding of the pre-
mises belonging to Messrs. Knight and Son, which were
burnt down a few nights since, for the purpose of carrying
on the tallow melting business.
Mr. Deputy FARMER moved that it be referred to the
Improvement Committee to consider and report upon.
Dr. LETHEBY, the medical officer of health, submitted
his report on the sanitary condition of the City. He stated
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
placts 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 quar-
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 ege, and 51 were among old persons of 60 and upwards.
The chief causes of death were as follows :—Phthisis, 33 ;
mesenteric diseases of children, 2; hydrocephalus, 8; con-
vulsions in infancy, 11; pneumonia, 22; and bronchitis. 11.
lAmong 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; diarrho.a
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
151 girls.

THE GAS SUPPLY IN THE CITY.

Dr. Letheby submitted his quarterly report of the illu-
minating power and chemical quality of thc 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 thatthe 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.
Those provisions 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. 11,therto the gas of but one company (t he 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 / dace ,f 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 gag 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 be
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
mentioned 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 suq)lauretted 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
parity 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 shculd be no strict binding_
_to each
day's quality of gas, but a fair average of the weekly
aynd tl3e
sup-
ply. This is my mode of proceeding at Present,agreed.nto_abi abide
yo
n will
the
qualityk e-
Great Central Company have =hesitatingly
by my testings in this manner at your laboratory Fins-
bury-square. -;sfqourarite;villl
btr:strnt ghat the
to
othdeeer companiesidefarl
of any gas without a systematic and continuous series of
investigations, such as are now made on your behalf for the
Great Company."HoT movedMr.Central 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 H
--"RIS 0 X 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.