The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-13 00:00:00

EXTRACTS FROM THE is INQUIRY
INTO THE SANITARY CONDITION Ws Tti4
LABOURING POPULATION OF GREAT
BRITAIN."—(CoIsrxNUED.)
Wood, when pinned together and laid on a
firm substratum; appears to be less retentive of
wet than most tbrms of stone pavement, end to
possess very considerable advantages over this
Maradamised roads fur crowded thoroughfares.
If it be brought into general use, it will have an
advantage in removing the granite-dust, which
medical authorities believe to be much more pre-
judicial to health, in exciting or aggravating lung
diseases, than the public have been aware of.
Where there is much dust in the working of
close quarries, the effects of it are almost as
destructive to the lungs of the operatives as the
knife-grinding to the operatives of Sheffield who
do not guard against the steel-dust. " It is
scarcely conceivable," Dr. Arnott states, " that
the immense quantities of granite-dust pounded
by one or two hundred thousand pairs of wheels
working on Macadamised streets, should not
greatly injure the public health. In houses bor-
dering such streets or roads, It is found that, not.
withstanding the practice of watering, the furni-
ture is often covered with dust even more than
once in the day, so that writing on it with the
finger becomes legible, and the lungs and
.air-
tubes of the inhabitants, with a moist lining to
detain the dust, are constantly pumping the same
atmosphere. The passengers by a stage-coach
in dry weather, when the wind is moving with
them, so as to ke.la them enveloped in the cloud
of dust raised by the horses' feet and the wheels
of the coach, have their clothes soon saturated
to whiteness with the dust, and their lungs of
course are charged in a corresponding degree.
A gentleman who rode only twenty miles in this
way, had afterwards to cough and expectorate for
ten days to clear his chest again."--page 50,
Mr. John Martin, the artist, has endeavoussea
to direct public attention to the sewerage of the
metropolis, and proposed the erection of a grand,
cloaca maxima, and various architectural Ivor's%
lalong the Thames, with the meritorious objecsa
of preventing the pollution of the river. :and
saving the refuse. His plan was to form a canal
on each bank parallel to the river, so as V., inter-
cept the whole of the'sewcrage, and covey it tot
large reservoirs or places of deposit m a distancrs,
His" Plan for the north bank was a canal, con-
structed of iron, costing 60,000/. per mile, 'ex-
tending from Westminster to the mouth of the
Regent's Canal, " where the grand receptacle
should be from which the soil should be con-
veyed to barges, and transmitted by canals to parts iof the country:"—Committee ota
Sewers' Report, p. 169. The primary objection.
to this plan is that it would send the refuse stall
further out of the reach of large districts, where
it is wanted as manure, to a place where it would.
only.be available to the places for which canal
conveyance would be convenient; that it avould
leave untouched the great obstacle to the use of
manure, namely, the cost of removal and appli-
cation by cartage and hand labour. The con-
struction of the canal would also involve the dis-
turbance of the whole of the wharf property; as
originally proposed, it involved their entire re-
construction, and the erection of a grand colon-
nade along the banks of the river. For the re--
moval of the refuse, engineers of Practical ex -
perience agree that the most eligible plan ay.:as
by various small conduits, not larger, where iron
pipes might be necessary, than the pipes
'used
by the water companies in bringing waSefs into
the metropolis, at a cost not a fifth, pesisaps, of
one large canal, and without any distui:b .mince of
property. For the application of the.
manure, practical experience. at Edbi 'refuse as
burgh,'and
of irrigation elsewhere, shows that most ef-
fectual mode of distribution for use is by water-
meadows or drainage and irrigasion combined;
forming an unseen, unostentatas,,„, self-acting
system of excretory ducts, Oscoge t her super-
seding- cartage or hand labo'‘,., and conveying
the refuse in closed stream acting constantly
and rapidly until they dist Alone the refuse into
the field of production.---'?age 63.
I have reason to belie'ie that in many parts of
Scotland the want of a good supply of water is
one of the most mat
.e •rial impediments to the
furtherance of cleanly • habits among the working
people. Besides the immediate evils of a nar-
row supply, much ti; ne is wasted, and many bad
habits are acquired lay those who have to wait
their turn at the wells in a time of drought.
Dundee, Stirling, 'Dunfermline, Lanark, and Ar-
broath, are all. believe, imperfectly supplied-
The community of Dundee have spent about
30,000/. in a contest between the supporters of
two contending water-bills; and I underfitandl
that an Act 'which was passed about three yealA
ago has been found incapable of being put
operation Where there is a posit ive
deficiency of the element on the spot, the ussans
of procuring a supply from another place -are sz)
various and so dependent on local circumsf.ances,
that nothing but some arbitrary authority, p )s-
-sessed of sufficient funds, could ensure its being
obtained in every instance.--Page Gc's.
The Itev. Whitwell Elwin, the chaplain of the
Bath Union; gives the fisllowiug illustration of
the habits of many of the working population
even of that city, which is well supplied with.
water :—" A man had to fetch water from or,e
Of the public pumps in Bath, the distance fr. Ali
his house being about a quarter of a mile,—' .t is
as valuable,' he said, :Ls strong beer. e can't
use it for cooking, or anything of that sort, but
only for drinking and tea.' Then where do you
get water for cookincs and washing?' Why,,
from the river. But It is muddy, and often stinks; •
bad, because all the filth is carried there.' Pso,
you, then, prefer to cook your victuals in watt• r
which is muddy and stinks, to walking a quart er
of a mile to fetth it from the pump?' We erai't
help ottraelyes, you know. We could not tr o all
that• way for it.' There arc many gentlesoen's
'Souses in the same district in which the ma:ter is
not fit for cooking ; and I know that much pri-
vation and inconvenience is under rune to avoid
the expense of water-carriage. I have often
wondered to see the shifts which have b den en-
dared rather than !'e at the cost of an (Aura pail
of water, of which the price was three half-
pence. With the poor, far less obstrzcles are an
absolute barrier,- because no privatlon is telt by
them so little as that of cleanlin•,,ss. The pro_
pensity to dirt is so strong, the steps so few and
easy, that nothing but die utmost facilities for•
water can act as a counterpoise; and such is tf.e
love of uncleanliness, when once contracted, %/mit
no habit, not even drunkenness, is so difficu',t to
eradicate."--Page 70.
In most towns, and certainly in the larger ma-
nufacturing towns, those members of a tinnily
who are of strength to fetch water are usually of
strength to be employed in profitable industry,
and the -mere value of their time expended in
the labour of fetching water, is 'almost always
much higher than the cost of rea-alar supplies of
water even at the charge mace by the wr.ter
companies. In Glasgow the charge for sur.ply-
ing a labourer's tenement is ss. per annura ; in
Manchester Gs. In London the thival chr.rge is
10s. for a tenement containing two families, for
which sum two tons and a half of a-ater per
week may be obtained if needed. Fo-e. ss. per
annum, then, as a water-rate (on. which
, from ten
or twenty per cent. is paid to the ovii,
.fir for col-
lection), each labourer's tinnily may bye supplied
in the metropolis with one ton and a. quarter of
water weekly, if they find it necessiay to use so
much. The ton is 216 gallons, equp.l to 108 pails
full, at two gallons the pail. Thtr
of water are, for less
than,
one penny t;irthing, 13. i pails fu
taken into the house without the labour of fetch.
plaeed Tit
ins, without spilling or disturbartce, and
constant readiness for use. Ender any ei
d mad
eV th
stances, it' the labourer or his, wife or retra
ise be employed,
otherwise
e l°We'St-paid
labour or in knitting StUetdricrs,
lbg water by hand is
Jest cost of
e-h-travat'o• tie cost
i of' fetch-
„an yh p,
'wed with the higi
1VD.14 usliftedeT;
ah
steam and conducted throw 1
large expend;aare of ea
3.
t
‘fthe lowest in Loa-
t "()n pipes at a
a
don is abcrat z2Q0)000i.) and br. . Hagen-tea, In illustration an expensive zna-
of the difference er-onomy of the two trio of conveyance, I may
mention that the usual cost of filtered water car--
ried into the hog Aral
is two sous the at Paris by the water-car-•
pailful, being at the rate of
whilst •
9s. per ton ;
ISt the highest charge of any or
the companies in London for sending the same!
quantity of water
to any place within the range.:
of their pipes, an i
d
level of 100 feet, delivering it at an average.:
eet, at the highest charge, s 6d. per-
ton. At the highest of the water companies.).
charges it would be good economy for the bes.'iths
of the labourer's family to pay for water Being;
laid on in the house, to reduce the exec nse o f
medicines and loss of work in the famPv,
dicated by any of the tables of sickness;
cost of laying on the water in the la.oourer's te—
nement, and providing a butt or receptacle to
Ira average 40s,
hold it, may be stated to be on
which will last twenty yearas.....p.
'ages 70, 71.

MINT
she new coinage botk
The er4Moyes at the Mine
ialrlcTgiodcaEdilYaßnirsiorv'er, in order to niefA the demand that
will be m ade upqn the Bank of England for bullion
thcourse of th• 3 payment of the forthcoming October--
dividends, Which commence to-morrow, the 13th just:-
The average quantity of specie struck at the Mint—
since the light gold panic has been 300,00 W per
week. The Bank has received no less
6,500,000/. sterling in light sovereigns
and
‘
sovereigns since the: Royal proclamaton. incon-
sequence of the demand fOr bullion,
the
new
half.
farthing coinage cannot be issued from the Mint. unti
the commencement of 1843. a sum than

2-.t_-_.2

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