The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-04 00:00:00

THE FEVER SHEDS IN MOUNT PLEASANT.

The agitation against these 'erections continues una-
bated. The Committee appointed by the inhabitants of
Abercromby Ward, to endeavour to effect a removal of
the sheds, at a meeting on Saturday, adopted the follow-
ing outlines of a plan which appears to them feasible and
practicable, in preference to the present fever sheds.
First,—The plan of erecting, under any suitable condi-
tions, commodious suburban wooden sheds—(based on
logs of wood, in case of renting ground)—on such a site
as for instance, Wavertree Ilall &tate, at present lying
idle comparatively if not absolutely, in the hands and
ownership of the Corporation ; and which was selected by
the Quarter Sessions a short time ago as eligible for a new
borough gaol ; and considering that it is remote from any
inhabited houses, with the exception of one or two, sepa-
rated by ample garden grounds, common road or railroad,
combines in it many obvious advantages. •
Secondly.—The plan of erecting a group of sheds
lieu of the former, or in addition, on an eligible piece of
land, somewhere near an old yrarel pit, on a ridge of
land looking over a broad valley, in the centre of which
valley is the Calderstones, Allerton, &c. The gravel pit
(now strawberry gardens) is just where Lodge-lane and
Ullet's-lane, Toxteth, meet, or a little further on, past a
large barn. The two roads mentioned form convenient
approaches. Water can be had, by sinking a well, if not
from the Harrington Water Works. Gas is brought close
to, and the spot is sufficiently high and cleared of woods,
whilst the prevailing winds would (for nine out of twelve
months) carry any effluvia by the atmospheric currents in
the most desirable directions.
Thirdly,—The plan of obtaining a kind of Lazarette or
nreadnotight hospital ship, to be moored in toe river, in
the anchorage somewhere near the present Lazarettos,
would be probably the best plan of all. The mode of
access by a small steamer has its advantages as well as its
disadvantages. _ _ _

If moored out of the sharpest run of the tidal and fresh
current, opposite Rock Ferry as the present Lazar Ates
are, the Harrington Dock might afford a suitable point
for embarking and disembarking, &c., and the shortest
water transit to the fever ships.
Perhaps some old condemned gun ship could be con-
tracted for by the town with the Admiralty—(stipendiary
medical staff attached ?)
With regard p the difficulty about going out of the
parochial possessions for a site, alleged to exist by the
Select Vestry, it is confidently felt, and that on the most
consistently reasonable grounds, for the adequate fulfil-
ment of a public purpose of the greatest moment to the
town and the country also, that an ORDER IN COUNCIL*
might be consented to and granted by the Crown.
It is further felt and hoped that the admirable provi-
sions of Lord Morpeth' 8- Bill, so strongly commended by
the Health of Towns Association here and in the metro-
polis, will, if permitted to pass into law, prove thoroughly
competent to deal with such crises of public health and
interests in future, and which would be commensurately
adjudicated upon by the Council of Health proposed to
be constituted, as a Board of health, with supreme powers
of direction, which, duly guided by a large and scientific
body of Medical Inspectors, could n A an .t o i c'e 'ation3
from the essential precautions in general sanitary points,
such as now present themselves so painfully in the in-
stance complained of by the memorialists.
The committee do gravely consider that, the fact of the
existing limitations in the matter if real, (a point much
doubted) have been already met in some way or other,
and very properly so, in the instance of the New Paro-
chial Industrial Schools planted out at Kirkeale, and that
a similar method must be now signally available for a
purpose more imperative if possible.
It is considered that the limit of act or acts of parlia-
ment simply arises in this way :—that the Legislature of
that date, or of those dates, as the case may be, never
contemplated the possibility of a population of 300,000
souls being crowded upon an area—presenting a density
of population to the square mile
.167,T times greater than
the most densely crowded portion of the metropolis itself !
—and the possibility, further, of a sudden influx of 50,000
starring and sickening Irish immigrants ; enhancing,
most fearfully, the evils inherent in the already awfully
condensed population of Liverpool: and thereby pre-
cipitating such an amount of epidemic fever and
dysentery—the types of which are daily acquiring a more
severe and fatal character; eventuating, at present, in
a mortality rate of about 10 per cent., and threatening a pro-
bable still higher per centage. To meet such an extraor-
dinary exigency, by an extraordinary measure of tempo-
rary provision, cannot surely be held out rationally, to be,
in any wise, a contravention of the tenor of parochial
government; but must•be, in fact, in the soundest accor-
dance with the true spirit of our parochial legislation—
many English
of which must be granted to be the boast
of the English nation, and to reflect to posterity the wisdom
of a Saxon Monarch ; but which, in an emergency like the
present, occurring in this large sea port (and possibly about
to extend as an ,evil) is inadequate, wherein a compre-
hensive and adequate measure is demanded, alike by the
necessities of a case where the sanitary prevention for the
healthy is as imperatively required as the cure of the sick
population.

PROPOSED NEW • ARRANGEMENT OF THE
SEWERAGE AND MODE OF CLEANSING THE

The Health Committee, we are rejoiced to find, are at
length getting their machinery to work in a practical and
the most direct effort to remove from Liverpool the stigma
under which she has so long laboured, of being, notwith-
standing the advantages of her position, the most un-
healthy town of the United Kingdom. One of the most
serious impediments to the removal of the existing causes
of disease has hitherto been the want of a comprehensive
plan of sewerage. The great underground ducts for the
removal of impurities from the town have been formed
from time to time, as the pressing wants of the commu-
nity called for them only, not with any regard for its
prospective requirements. The natural consequence has
-been imperfections in the dove-tailing and connecting
process to which the authorities have had to resort as the
town extended in area and population. Main sewers, ori-
ginally sufficient, have proved insufficient in dimensions
for the increased quantity of matter running into them;
the levels of some have been inaccurate, thus creating de-
posits below the surface injurious to the public health,
and setting at defiance in a great measure the efforts to
improve the sanitary condition of the town by attention to
house drainage and surface cleansing.
The Health Committee, wisely, have taken the bull by
the horns, with a determination to overcome it. Their
surveyor, Mr. Newlands, with an efficient staff of assist-
ants, has for some time been at work upon a survey of
the town and its locality, with a view to ascertain cor-
rectly the levels of the whole; and has succeeded in laying
before the Committee a plan, founded upon these levels,
for the proper sewering of the whole. We have not had
an opportunity ourselves of inspecting the plan itself; but
we believe the following to be its main features. The
north end of the town is to be provided with a complete
set of sewers connected with a main sewer running into
Beacon's gutter. The south end of the town is to be
provided with main connecting sewers, and a main run-
ning into the river somewhere near the Harrington Docks;
and a third set of sewers for the accommodation of the
eastern outskirts of Edge Hill, Low Hill, &c., are to de-
bouch into Tue Brook. Of course the Building Act pro-
vides for the House Drainage being effectually carried
out.

In addition to this comprehensive plan, and by the aid
which it will afford, another excellent project has been
laid before the Committee by Mr. Newlands, viz., to do
away with the use of cess-pools throughout the town, and
to substitute for them even in the cottage houses, water
closets upon a self-acting plan, which is stated by that
gentleman to possess great efficiency combined with
cheapness. Ash-pits are also to be dispensed with, every
housekeeper being compelled to hand the ashes daily to a
carter, who will be sent about to collect them. We have
frequently urged upon the authorities the advantage
which would accrue to the town, in the improved health
of the population, if the sewers were as frequently as
possible. flushed thoroughly. An experiment, having
in view to test the extent of our present means to
effect this object, was tried on Saturday, under the
direction of Mr. Newlands, and in the presence of
several influential members of the Council and the Health
Committee, at the Kensington Reservoir. The water was
turned on at half-past two ; and, in twenty-five minutes,
the whole of the sewers, to the North of Islington, and
running into Beacon's Gutter, were flushed; 10,000 gallons
per minute being discharged into them. For the first few
minutes, the stream which was discharged at Beacon's
Gutter was black as ink, and very foul,—showing inc?n-
testibly tLe retention in the sewers, probably from their im-
perfect construction, in a great measure, ofunhealthy matter;
but this gradually disappeared, and at the end of the trial,
which lasted about half an hour, the water discharged was
perfectly clear. The result produced upon the reservoir
was only a lowering of the water level two inches. Ay.
Newlands proposes to flush the new sewers regularly twice
a day, which, when their more favourable construction is
taken into account, together with the diminished quantity
of impurity to he removed, can probably be effected with
much less expenditure of water supply.