The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-03-24 00:00:00

water, in a spot where there is little room for the free cir-
culation of air; the water must absorb some of the no-
xious gases floating always over it. Disgusting accumu-
lations of garbage may be seen in every direction where
human footsteps might be directed, opposite every door
nearly, and in entries.
The cellars are as numerous as the houses ; the majority,

. ! .
A .
by far, . ~
ire untenanted, and in some of these water was
er in the shape of the drywells or in pools on
lodged, tit,
the floor. A b."ecimen of the water taken from one cellar
organic matter, mainly in suspension,
was turbid from the presence of ammonia ; it was
slightly alkaline from n
quantities of sulphuretted
4bted to my friend Dr.
hy-
found also to contain SSII)A. mmonia. For this and all
droren, in combination with %._ e
subsequent chemical facts lam 1b... .nany me to several
Brett, who took the trouble to aecou.„ attention in the
of the places to which I have to solicit

course of these statements.
FREEMASON'S-ROW
. _

At the entrance of a court in this street, a cellar was in
the act of being baled out by an old man living in the house
above it, who stated that he was obliged to do so continu-
ally, or that they would be flooded. This was his daily
task, owing to the neglected state of the water tap ; the
hack yard belonging to the court was in a bad state,
drainage occurring every way. He was a subject of rheu-
matism, which he attributed to the baling of his cellar of
water (qualified by privy drainage). This cellar had been
vacant about 12 months. A specimen of the water ob-
tained from this cellar did not give any evidence of the
presence of sulphuretted hydrogen or ammonia, probably
owing to the fact of its being so copiously diluted with es-
cape water; it was rather slightly acid than alkaline, in
which respect it differed from other water taken from cel-
lars which have been examined, where an alkaline tendency
was noted, owing to the presence of ammonia, the pro-
duct, no doubt, of the decomposition of animal matter :
the latter there is abundant evidence to shew is frequently
deposited in no inconsiderable quantiies in these now un-
inhabited and uninhabitable depots for filth.
In another dwelling in Freemason's-row, the specimen
of water did not differ in any material respect from *he
foregoing, with the exception that it was not acid, but had
rather an alkaline tendency.
In another dwelling the cellar was in a flooded state,
and yielded a disgusting, sour, nauseous odour. The te-
nants above had been only two months there, and say they
found it in the present state. They observed that, as the
doors and shutters of this and neighbouring cellars were
broken or dilapidated, the worst part of the commu-
nity proceeded, by a selfishness of action. to throw their
ashes and other impurities into them, in plain violation of
the golden rule : these acts of transference occur at night,
when watching is impossible.
A specimen of this water did not exhibit any acidity,
but was turbid from dark-coloured matter held in suspen-
sion. When the water was evaporated a nauseating vapour
arose : it was found to yield twenty-eight grains of solid
matter to the imperial pint, or 224 grains to the gallon.
About one-half of this solid residue consisted of azotised
organic matter, of an animal origin most probably. The
presence of so much organic matter would doubtless, un-
der the high temperature which would prevail in the sum-
mer season, give rise to the production of effluvia highly
injurious to health. And that more especially, since the
analysis above referred to shews that the organic matter
is principally of animal origin.

Two other houses presented cellars, which stunk, and
contained water differing in no material point from the
water obtained from Harrison•street. It is worthy of re-
mark that the specimens of water obtained from the three
sources referred to, were slightly alkaline from ammonia,
sheaving that they contained animal matter in a process of
decomposition.

In a back cellar in a court in this row, a dry well existed
in the centre of the floor, which was full of the most hor-
ribly foetid water; into which all sorts of animal matter
was thrown, consisting of dead cats and dogs and various
excrementitious matters. The floor was also strewed with
solid excrement. The water from this sink of abomina-
tion was of a very dark colour, End had a highly offensive
odour. When heated, a most nauseating vapour arose.
The water was found to be distinctly alkaline, so as to
redden turmeric paper ; when mixed with lime, ammo-
nia was set free; sulphuretted hydrogen was found to be
present, being readily disengaged by the addition of an
acid to the water, and its presence was further distinctly
indicated by blackening salts of lead and silver.
This water yielded, by evaporation, solid matter in the
proportion of 100 grs. to the imperial pint, or 800 grs. to
the gallon, and of this matter, one third was azotised or-
ganic matter. Independently, therefore, of the injurious
effects which would be produced from the disengagement
of sulphuretted hydrogen (a most poisonous gas) there
can be little doubt but that during the heats of summer
rapid decomposition of azotised organic matter would go
on, giving rise to effluvia of a most noxious character.
Might not such accumulations as the above, containing, as
they do, either ammonia or the elements for the forma-
tion of that substance, be advantageously employed as
manure, instead of being only efficient, as they at present
appear to be, in giving birth to gaseous emanations of so
pestiferous a nature as seriously to injure, if not perma-
nently to destroy the health, of those who are from cir-
cumstances Compelled to dwell within their poisonous in-
fluence. I have not yet done.—Yours, &c.,

G. C. WATSON

Liverpool, March 18th, 1846

LWe received the following letter early last Tuesday
morning, and published it in a second edition.l

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Silt,—My correspondent, in your columns of to-day,
said, in his letter to rne, " I would be sorry to have this
letter published, and rely on your not doing so." In his
letter to you, he refers to his letter to me, and says, " of
which I retained no copy." On this you have a note,
" We subsequently obtained a copy."
Of whom could a copy be obtained, but from me ? And
yet my correspondent relied on me not to publish his let-
ter ! This places me in a position in which I must not
remain.

I gave any correspondent his own letter, and you must
have obtained it from or through him. When he wrote
to you to say he had not retained a cony, and, at the same
time, sent you the letter for publication, he should have
added that, at his request, I had returned to him the ori-
ginal.

I think he should not have suppressed his name, but
under existing circumstances I will not publish it.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
• HUGH M`NEILE.
17/h March, 184 G.

[We certainly received the letter to which Mr. M`Neile
alludes from the gentleman who wrote it, and who, being
wishful for its publication if his name were suppressed,
informed us that he had requested Mr. M'Neile to return
the original, which he handed to us for insertion in the
Standard. This circumstance ought to have been ex-
plained by our correspondent in the course of his letter to
us.]