The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-01-05
Sewer POiSonS.

The death ofanobleman and the long and chi
teal illness of Prince in England have set OIL
foot a general hunt after sewer poisons. Hun
dreds of houses have their floors torn UP, and
plumbers are reaping a harvest. Many discov-
cries have been made Of poisonous ellluvia and
leaking pipes disseminating malaria to the
peril of society. Certainly the effects of the
poison at Londesborough House have not
been without good If they lead to reform of
the vicious sewerage system.
Mr.. MoNoURE D. CONWAY writes from Lon.
don to the Cincinnati Commercial some in
teresting particulars concerning the excite
menta and the measures that are being adopted.
We make the following extract from his let
ter: -f NY
"The system of drainage and sewerage in
England is radically bad. Thousands are
slain annually in this country by the cfluyia
to which, when Prince fnlls victim, public
and official attention is for the first time di-
rected. Many u better man has persisted
through the same preventible causes, and no
man layeth it to heart. Professor Frank
land, of the Royal Institution, has analyzcd
Ill the water of this metropolis, and showed
threc-fourths OF it to be poisonous. In June
1870 report was laid before the Priry CouE-
Gil showing that in Foust Hill, one of the
most important and wealthy suburbs Of
London, there was not single instance
OF provision to prevent the influx of sew.
erage gases into house. Every one
knew that If such was the case with
SO new and wealthy suburb it must
la nh .r-sf1> al n,,I
thickly settled places. Since the Princes ILL
ness the sanitary conditioned West Newton,
the village adjoining Sandrlngham, has been
examined, and though nine or ten people
were found suffering from all manner of
febrile diseases, such was the loathsome con-
dition Of the place that the wonder was how
anybody was in health there. But West
Newton is q fair sample Of all English vii
lagos and towns. 1t is now pretty we'll
aacertained that the Prince contracted his
disease at Lord LondcSborough's residence,
ut Scarborough, as Lord Chesterfield, who
has since died. The first symptom of sewerage
poison. in both cases, was manifested by n
sore Oh the finger. Lord Chesterfield had
ugly spots OH the back, and despaircd of his
life from the first. The investigation, Begin
ming Mt Londesborough House, has extended
to scarborough, and it is found that the place
where thousands 60 annually for health is
developed in malaria, which is pushed out
from every sink and closet with every rising
tide. The people have inherited the rude
sewerage system Of their nnscientific fathers,
just as they have inherited hereditary mon
archy, and have almost come to regard stinks
as part Of the constitution. But the consti-
tuition OF the universe has something to say,
and is now saying it pretty loudly. Early in
February sanitary bill is to be brought be-
fore Parliament, and it will pass, and the
Prince will not have been ill--or, if he die,
will not have died-in vain. Already one
hardly goes into house where the floors are
not torn up and the plumbers at work. The
plumbers have more than they can do, and
are getting rich. The manufacturers of
filters can hardly supply the demand. The
Prince deserves to live for the good his i'll
ness is accomplishing, especially II by living
he shall defeat the silly notion that it is not
sanitary laws but doom Of some kind which
takes him of On the tenth anniversary of his
fathers death"