Chapter XIII: Appendix (3)

You will therefore see that the rate of mortality has gradually
diminished in Beccles since it has been drained, whilst in Bungay,
notwithstanding its larger proportion of rural population, it has
considerably increased.

“The Ditchingham Factory may have given a greater increase of
population to Bungay than I have allowed for, but, on the other hand,
the Roman Catholics and the Independents bury many of their dead in
their own ground, which I have not calculated upon. Since writing the
above, I have been over to Bungay, to examine more particularly the
state of its drainage, which is much worse than I had any idea of. If
their population should much increase, their mortality will increase
much faster.”

A frightful picture of a considerable proportion of the labouring population of Leeds in respect to sewerage and drainage is afforded by the report of _Mr. Baker_, who gives the following instance of amendment:—

“In one of the streets of Leeds where stagnant water used frequently
to accumulate after rain, and where there was perpetually occurring
cases of fever of a malignant character, a deputation of females
waited upon me in my capacity of town counsellor to ask if any remedy
could be applied to this nuisance, which they declared was not only
offensive but deadly. I directed them to communicate with the owner of
the property, and to say that if the grievance was not remedied I
should take further steps to enforce it. Never hearing again from the
deputation, I presumed that the remedy had been applied, and had
forgotten the circumstance until the house surgeon of the fever
hospital in 1840, in noticing the localities from whence fever cases
were most frequently brought to the institution, remarked that
‘formerly many cases of malignant fever were brought in from ——
street, but for two or three years there had been none or not more
than one or two.’”

_Mr. John Wright_, the relieving officer of the Tamworth union, states, that the following extracts exhibit the condition in which large masses of the population are kept by the neglect of the proper means of town drainage, and of the house cleansing, practicable by means of drains:—

“Some of the houses in the back streets and courts of Tamworth,
particularly those comprised in Class No. 1, are in a wretched state
with respect to the common conveniences of life, being adjacent to
stagnant ditches and pools of water, and having only one privy, common
to many houses, and hemmed in with piggeries, &c., most of these
houses having no back doors, the consequence of which is, that fevers
and other disorders, generated by filth and malaria, are very
prevalent, particularly in humid weather.”

_Mr. Elias Barlow_, the relieving officer of the Wolstanton and Burslem union, states that—

“The townships of Knutton and Chesterton have been visited with fever
for several months; and it still continues its raging influence,
particularly in Knutton, the reason of which appears to me to be want
of drainage, owing to the houses having been built upon low marshy
ground; and also want of ventilation, owing to the houses being too
small and having no back doors; it first made its appearance in the
lowest class of houses, but has since extended to others.”

The condition of the labouring population of Liverpool, in respect to drainage, is thus described in the report of _Dr. Duncan_:—

“The sewerage of Liverpool was so very imperfect, that about 10 years
ago a local Act was procured, appointing commissioners with power to
levy a rate on the parish for the construction of sewers. Under this
Act, which expires next year, about 100,000_l._. have been expended in
the formation of sewers along the main streets, but many of these are
still unsewered; and with regard to the streets inhabited by the
working classes, I believe that the great majority are without sewers,
and that where they do exist they are of a very imperfect kind unless
where the ground has a natural inclination, therefore the surface
water and fluid refuse of every kind stagnate in the street, and add,
especially in hot weather, their pestilential influence to that of the
more solid filth already mentioned. With regard to the courts, I doubt
whether there is a single court in Liverpool which communicates with
the street by an underground drain, the only means afforded for
carrying off the fluid dirt being a narrow, open, shallow gutter,
which sometimes exists, but even this is very generally choked up with
stagnant filth.

“There can be no doubt that the emanations from this pestilential
surface, in connexion with other causes, are a frequent source of
fever among the inhabitants of these undrained localities. I may
mention two instances in corroboration of this assertion:—In
consequence of finding that not less than 63 cases of fever had
occurred in one year in Union-court Banastre-street, (containing 12
houses,) I visited the court in order to ascertain, if possible, their
origin, and I found the whole court inundated with fluid filth which
had oozed through the walls from two adjoining ash-pits or cesspools,
and which had no means of escape in consequence of the court being
below the level of the street, and having no drain. The court was
owned by two different landlords, one of whom had offered to construct
a drain provided the other would join him in the expense; but this
offer having been refused, the court had remained for two or three
years in the state in which I saw it; and I was informed by one of the
inhabitants that the fever was constantly occurring there. The house
nearest the ash-pit had been untenanted for nearly three years in
consequence of the filthy matter oozing up through the floor, and the
occupiers of the adjoining houses were unable to take their meals
without previously closing the doors and windows. Another court in
North-street, consisting of only four small houses I found in a
somewhat similar condition, the air being contaminated by the
emanations from two filthy ruinous privies, a large open ash-pit and a
stratum of semi-fluid abomination covering the whole surface of the
court.

“From the absence of drains and sewers, there are of course few
cellars entirely free from damp; many of those in low situations are
literally inundated after a fall of rain. To remedy the evil, the
inhabitants frequently make little holes or wells at the foot of the
cellar steps or in the floor itself; and notwithstanding these
contrivances, it has been necessary in some cases to take the door off
its hinges and lay it on the floor supported by bricks, in order to
protect the inhabitants from the wet. Nor is this the full extent of
the evil; the fluid matter of the court privies sometimes oozes
through into the adjoining cellars, rendering them uninhabitable by
any one whose olfactories retain the slightest sensibility. In one
cellar in Lace-street I was told that the filthy water thus collected
measured not less than two feet in depth; and in another cellar, a
well, four feet deep, into which this stinking fluid was allowed to
drain, was discovered below the bed where the family slept!”

He also states,—

“There are upwards of 8,000 inhabited cellars in Liverpool, and I
estimate their occupants at from 35,000 to 40,000.”

He adds that—

“In a Report lately made by the Surveyors, appointed by the Town
Council to examine the condition of the court and cellar residences
within the borough, it is stated that of 2,398 _courts_ examined,
1,705 were closed at one end, so as to prevent thorough ventilation.
Of 6,571 _cellars_, whose condition is reported on, 2,988 are stated
to be either wet or damp, and nearly one-third of the whole number are
from 5 to 6 feet below the level of the street.”

_Dr. Jenks_, in his report on the condition of the town of Brighton, states,—

“Owing to the imperfect and insufficient drainage of the town, the
inhabitants are compelled to have recourse to numerous cesspools as
receptacles for superabundant water, and refuse of all kinds; and to
save the inconvenience of frequently emptying them, they dig below the
hard coombe rock till they come to the shingles, where all the liquid
filth drains away. The consequence is inevitable; the springs in the
lower part of the town must be contaminated.”

But even in Birmingham, which, as will be seen, enjoys almost an immunity from fever in consequence of the fortunate position of the town conferring advantages in respect to drainage, and the good construction of the houses, it appears from the report made by the physicians and surgeons, that the drainage is in many places extremely defective.

“The great sewers of the town open into the Rea, or into the rivulets
which discharge their contents into that stream. In some places these
rivulets are now covered over and constitute sewers. The present
sewers, which are numerous and large, appear to be sufficient to carry
off any storms or floods to which the town is liable, and no part of
the town is subject to inundations. The principal streets are well
drained, but this is far from the case with respect to many of the
inferior streets, and to many, or rather most, of the courts, which,
especially in the old parts of the town, are dirty and neglected, with
water stagnating in them. These require immediate attention, and care
ought to be taken that the depth of the main drains is sufficient to
drain the cellars of the adjoining premises, which is not the case in
some parts of the town. It is also important that a system of proper
drainage should be enforced at the commencement of the building of any
new streets or houses. The want of some regulations in this respect
often causes the accumulation of putrid water in ditches and pools in
the immediate vicinity of newly-erected buildings. In some parts of
the borough, as at Edgbaston, there are but few public underground
sewers, and the water from the houses is discharged into the ditches
or gutters by the sides of the roads, where it stagnates. In the
courts the drains are often above ground, and not covered in, and
discharge their contents into the gutters or kennels in the streets.
We do not think that much advantage is derived from having small
underground drains in the courts if the gutters are laid upon a proper
slope and are kept in proper repair, for the weirs or grates of small
underground drains are very apt to be out of order, or to become
choked, in which case accumulations of filthy fluids take place above
them.”

The inquiry into the sanitary condition of the towns in Scotland shows that similar defects stand equally in need of remedy in that part of the empire. _Mr. Burton_, in his report on the provisions of the Police Act for the city of Edinburgh, observes:—

“Until very lately the Cowgate, a long street running along the lowest
level of a narrow valley, had only surface drains. The various alleys
from the High-street and other elevated ground open into this street.
In rainy weather they carried with them each its respective stream of
filth, and thus the Cowgate bore the aspect of a gigantic sewer
receiving its tributary drains. A committee of private gentlemen had
the merit of making a spacious sewer 830 yards long in this street at
a cost of 2000_l._ collected by subscription. The utmost extent to
which they received assistance from the police, consisted in being
vested with the authority of the Act as a protection from the
interruption of private parties. During the operation they were
nevertheless harassed by claims of damage for obstructing the
causeway, and their minutes, with a perusal of which I have been
favoured, show that they experienced a series of interruptions from
the neighbouring occupants, likely to discourage others from following
their example.”

In a communication from _Mr. William Chambers_, he observes—

“Within these few years, the practice of introducing water-closets
into houses has become pretty general, wherever it is practicable; but
in the greater part of the old town nothing of the kind can be
accomplished from the want of drains. There are drains in the leading
thoroughfares, but few closes possess these conveniences, and water is
also sparingly introduced into these confined situations. You will
therefore understand that a want of tributary drains and water is a
fundamental cause of the uncleanly condition of the town. Of water of
the finest kind there is indeed a plenteous supply, but unfortunately
this is a monopoly in the hands of a joint-stock company, and
excepting at two or three wells, all the water introduced into the
town has to be specially paid for, in the form of a tax upon the
rental, by those who use it.”

As in England, the ignorance or neglect upon this matter is not confined to the labouring population of the capital. _Dr. Scott Alison_, in his report on the condition of Tranent and the adjacent districts, observes that—

“There is nothing like an efficient system of drainage in Tranent and
the other villages in the district. There is a piece of drain here and
there, but it is very inefficient. There is not even a sufficient
water-course in the main streets of Tranent; and it frequently
happens, during and after a heavy fall of rain, that the carriage-road
is covered with water, and that some of the lower class of houses are
inundated. In a few parts of the town the water-course is covered with
stones or flags. These occasionally fall in, and openings are made.
These openings are generally left unrepaired, and are not filled up.
People frequently get hurt by stepping into them when it is dark. I
have myself met with an accident; and serious mischief would very
frequently occur did people not pay particular attention to avoid
them.”

_Dr. Sym_, in his report on the sanitary condition of the town of Ayr, states that—

“A good covered sewer traverses the principal streets of the new part
of Ayr; but the old part of the burgh, and both Newton and Wallacetown
have merely shallow open gutters along the sides of the causeway.
These gutters receive all the liquid refuse from the closes and alleys
which communicate with the street, and which are generally causewayed
in such a way that one side is considerably higher than the other, so
as to permit water to find its way to the opposite edge. This sort of
drainage might suffice for all useful purposes in our dry sandy soil
if we had an adequate establishment of scavengers; but the gutters in
many of the streets, and in all the closes inhabited by the poor are
so much neglected, that they are never free from the stinking residuum
of foul water. In Newton and Wallacetown, the drainage is exceedingly
imperfect; indeed, in most streets of the latter it may be said
scarcely to exist, and as the surface is very flat, almost the whole
of the liquid putrescence and filth which are thrown out from the
houses is allowed to filter through the sand, or evaporate in the sun,
leaving a most offensive paste at the sides of the streets, and in the
passages through the houses. This is the more to be regretted, that
the beautiful state of cleanliness of the new part of Ayr, shows with
how little labour it might be obviated with the aid of our absorbent
soil and free atmosphere. There are some streets, the main street of
Newton in particular, which have such inequalities in the causewayed
footpaths, and such want of escape by the gutters, that it is
impossible to find one’s way through them in a dark night, without
many a plunge into the filth. There is everywhere sufficient slope
toward the river to render drainage perfectly effectual, if properly
executed.”

_Mr. Forrest_, the surgeon, in his account of Stirling, states that—

“The drains or sewers, called in Stirling ‘_sivers_,’ are all open and
sloping. On the public streets they are, in general, well constructed,
but in the closes their construction is so very bad that scarcely any
of them run well. The only supply of water, so far as I know, which
they receive, is from the heavens. The inhabitants of Stirling, during
many months of the year, do not obtain water sufficient for their
domestic wants, and they cannot, therefore, have any to spare for
their sewers. There is a regularly appointed service of scavengers,
but it is inefficient. A few old men sweep the public streets from
time to time, and the sweepings thus collected are removed in a cart,
without any apparent attention to time or order. Sometimes the
sweepings remain on the streets for many days. To show how matters of
medical police are neglected, I shall state a few facts which are
known to every person in Stirling. 1st. The filth of the gaol,
containing on an average 65 prisoners, is floated down the public
streets every second or third day, and emits, during the whole of its
progress down Broad-street, Bow, Baker-street, and King-street, the
principal streets in the town, the most offensive and disgusting
odour. 2nd. The slaughter-house is situated near the top of the town,
and the blood from it is allowed to flow down the public streets. 3rd.
The lower part of a dwelling-house, not more than three or four yards
from the town-house and gaol, is used as a ‘midding,’ and pigsty, the
filth being thrown into it by the window and door. 4th. There are no
public necessaries; and the common stairs and closes, and even the
public streets, are used habitually as such, by certain classes of the
community. 5th. Two drains from the castle, convey the whole filth of
it into an open field, where it spreads itself over the surface, and
pollutes the atmosphere to a very great extent. 6th. A dwelling-house
in the Castle-hill, the greater part of which is inhabited, is used by
a butcher as a slaughter-house; and some of the butchers kill sheep
and lambs in their back shops, situated under dwelling-houses. 7th.
The closes where the poor dwell, and where accumulations of filth most
abound, are, I may safely say, utterly neglected by the scavengers. In
some situations, the ventilation around the residences is good, but in
many others, and especially in the closes, it is very bad, and in my
opinion, quite irremediable.”

Before quitting this class of instances, it may here be necessary to guard against the conclusion that neglect of drainage is confined to towns, or to numerous and crowded habitations. Similar instances may be presented, even of single and isolated houses, and of small groups of rural cottages, in almost every district. Of this last class of cases I give only one instance, supplied by the evidence of _Mr. J. Thomson_, of Clitheroe:—

“Have you not had amongst your own people an instance of pestilence
occasioned by the neglect of removable causes of disease?—In the
summer of 1839 some remarkable cases of fever occurred in my immediate
neighbourhood amongst the inhabitants in my employment, of a small
cluster of houses called Littlemoor. The situation of this little spot
has always been considered, and justly, as remarkably healthy and
agreeable, the soil around it being dry, and not marshy, as the name
would seem to imply. It is situated on gently sloping ground, about a
mile from the town of Clitheroe, and freely exposed on all sides to
the wind. It contained six houses and 21 inhabitants at the time of
the fever. The houses are built in three distinct groups, round an
irregular area of from 50 to 60 feet square. A single, inadequate, and
half-choked-up drain, originally constructed more than 40 years ago,
for the only cottager, then existing on the spot, was the only
underground outlet for the filth, and sink, and surplus water of these
habitations; the rest was carried off by a deep and open ditch filled
with grass and weeds; this ditch spread out, about 100 yards to the
north, into a shallow stagnant pool, in summer green and fœtid; from
which was conveyed all the water that could flow during that season
past and amongst the cottages at Littlemoor. Into the centre of the
open area or yard was poured all the filth of the houses in open
channels, and thence, by the above-mentioned underground drain,
conveyed away. This state of things was bad enough, but was rendered
still worse by the erection recently of a pigsty, the litter and filth
of which not only obstructed the drain, but occasioned a pool of
abomination of the most perilous and disgusting nature. At the time I
saw it—the commencement of the fever—it was overflowing into the
foundation of the principal habitation, and had infected the whole
house with its stench, and was making its way by innumerable black and
fœtid streams through a small shrubbery, the area of which it wholly
covered, into the deep and open ditch. Believing this to be the source
of the pestilence, I had the sty instantly pulled down, the filth
removed, and a large drain brought up to the centre of the yard,
terminating in small covered troughs to each habitation. This was in
the middle of August, and from the hour of the removal of the filth no
fresh case of fever occurred. The first case was on the 12th of May,
and was followed by another in the same house on the 27th. In June
there were three cases; and in July six; in August four; in all, 15;
of which nine were the resident inhabitants, in a population of 21;
and the remaining six, nurses and attendants on the sick, obtained
from the immediate neighbourhood. No fever prevailed at the time in
Clitheroe. One case was fatal, and the health of a most valuable
member of that small community was so seriously affected by the fever
as to cause his death in a short time. A visitor and attendant on the
funeral of the person deceased at Littlemoor, and who took the fever,
died also. This spot has remained, and I doubt not will continue,
healthy ever since.

“The medical gentleman, Mr. Garstang, of Clitheroe, who attended the
preceding case, has communicated to me the equally striking and
instructive statement I subjoin:—At Chatburn, a village to the north
of Clitheroe, he was called to attend a patient in fever, in the month
of May of the same year 1839. The first object that struck his eye on
approaching the house was a long pole, with a bunch at the end, black
and filthy from its recent use in forcing a choked-up and inaccessible
drain, which passed between and under the gable-ends of two closely
contiguous houses, only a few inches apart, one of which contained his
patient. From this single case and house Mr. G. ascertained that 11
cases arose, by which means the fever was spread through the country,
where it prevailed with great severity, and terminated, in many
instances, fatally. There was no fever but what could be traced to
this, and no other discoverable source.”

_Street and Road Cleansing: Road Pavements._

The local arrangements for the cleansing and drainage of towns, &c., generally present only instances of varieties of grievous defects from incompleteness and from the want of science or combination of means for the attainment of the requisite ends. Thus the local reports abound with instances of expensive main-drains, which from ignorant construction as to the levels, do not perform their office, and do accumulate pestilential refuse; others, which have proper levels, but from the want of proper supplies of water do not act; others, which act only partially or by surface drainage, in consequence of the neglect of communication from the houses to the drains; others, where there are drains communicating from the houses, but where the house-drains do not act, or only act in spreading the surface of the matter from cesspools, and increasing the fœtid exhalations from it in consequence of the want of supplies of water; others again, as in some of the best quarters of the metropolis, where the supplies of water are adequate, and where the drains act in the removal of refuse from the house, but where from want of moderate scientific knowledge or care in their construction, each drain acts like the neck of a large retort, and serves to introduce into the house the subtle gas which spreads disease from the accumulations in the sewers.[3] Other districts there are where their structural arrangements may be completed, and water supplied, and the under drainage in action, and yet pestilential accumulations be found spread before the doors of the population in consequence of the defective construction, and the neglect of the surface-cleansing of the streets and roads. Recently a remonstrance was made to an able and active member of a Commission of Sewers, for taking no steps to extend the drainage in a wretched district of the metropolis. The reply was, a statement, that a drain had been cut through a portion of it, but that it had done no good; and the remonstrant was invited to inspect the district himself, and judge whether, with streets that were unpaved and uncleansed, wet and miry, with deep holes full of refuse, it were possible by any under drainage to remove the evil complained of. Other districts there are in which the Road Commissioners or the Paving Board appears to have done their duty; but the benefit is prevented, and the road is kept continually out of repair by the neglect of the service of scavengers.

All these local defects again are referred back to the defective construction of the Acts of Parliament,—which generally either presume that no science, no skill is requisite for the attainment of the objects, or presume both to be universal,—which in some instances actually prohibit the only effectual mode of drainage, namely, that from the houses into the main-drains; and in others, prescribe cleansing by house-drains without supplies of water; or prescribe the construction of roads independently of drains, and direct the execution of only part of the necessary means, leaving other essential parts to the discretion of individuals.

Between a town population similarly situated in general condition, one part inhabiting streets which are unpaved, and another inhabiting streets that are paved, a general difference of health is observed. The town of Portsmouth is built upon a low portion of the marshy island of Portsea. It was formerly subjected to intermittent fever, but since the town was paved, in 1769, it was noticed by Sir Gilbert Blane, that this disorder no longer prevailed; whilst Kilsea and the other parts of the island retained the aguish disposition until 1793, when a drainage was made which subdued its force.

Such strongly marked effects on the health of the population have followed in many places the complete cleansing of the streets, as are stated by _Mr. Bland_, medical officer of the Macclesfield Union:—

“To show the value of police regulations in removing any improper
accumulations of foul, and putrid matter, where a deadly poison is
generated, I have a distinct recollection that, when the cholera
appeared in Macclesfield, not only was that fatal disease arrested
somewhat in its progress by the active vigilance exercised by the
gentlemen in seeing that in their several districts all offending
deposits were removed, and all pest-houses cleansed, that for several
months after the town had undergone this salutary inspection, and the
people made alive to the pernicious effects of the dunghill, fever of
the worst or contagious form scarcely appeared in the usual
localities, although it was at the autumnal season of the year. I
likewise noticed in spring-time following, when the filth had begun to
accumulate on the surface in certain parts of the town, a severe
return of contagious diseases, fever in all its stages, and a very
fatal epidemic small-pox.”

Similar cases were frequently noticed in the reports from Scotland; but when the alarm passed away, the habitual neglect of this description of cleanliness returned.

In the consideration of the evidence about to be submitted as to the condition of the streets on the external condition of the residences of the labouring classes, it should be borne in mind that the external condition of the dwelling powerfully and immediately affects its internal cleanliness and general economy.

The description of a large proportion of the streets inhabited by the working classes in Manchester by Dr. Baron Howard, and those of Leeds by Mr. Baker, those of Liverpool by Dr. Duncan, might be extended to Glasgow and other places. _Dr. Howard_ states:—

“That the filthy and disgraceful state of many of the streets in these
densely populated and neglected parts of the town where the indigent
poor chiefly reside cannot fail to exercise a most baneful influence
over their health is an inference which experience has fully proved to
be well founded; and no fact is better established than that a large
proportion of the causes of fever which occur in Manchester originate
in these situations. Of the 182 patients admitted into the temporary
fever hospital in Balloon-street, 135 at least came from unpaved or
otherwise filthy streets, or from confined and dirty courts and
alleys. Many of the streets in which cases of fever are common are so
deep in mire, or so full of hollows and heaps of refuse that the
vehicle used for conveying the patients to the House of Recovery often
cannot be driven along them, and the patients are obliged to be
carried to it from considerable distances. Whole streets in these
quarters are unpaved and without drains or main-sewers, are worn into
deep ruts and holes, in which water constantly stagnates, and are so
covered with refuse and excrementitious matter as to be almost
impassable from depth of mud, and intolerable from stench. In the
narrow lanes, confined courts and alleys, leading from these, similar
nuisances exist, if possible, to a still greater extent; and as
ventilation is here more obstructed, their effects are still more
pernicious. In many of these places are to be seen privies in the most
disgusting state of filth, open cesspools, obstructed drains, ditches
full of stagnant water, dunghills, pigsties, &c., from which the most
abominable odours are emitted. But dwellings perhaps are still more
insalubrious in those cottages situated at the backs of the houses
fronting the street, the only entrance to which is through some
nameless narrow passage, converted generally, as if by common consent,
into a receptacle for ordure and the most offensive kinds of filth.
The doors of these hovels very commonly open upon the uncovered
cesspool, which receives the contents of the privy belonging to the
front house, and all the refuse cast out from it, as if it had been
designedly contrived to render them as loathsome and unhealthy as
possible. Surrounded on all sides by high walls, no current of air can
gain access to disperse or dilute the noxious effluvia, or disturb the
reeking atmosphere of these areas. Where there happens to be less
crowding, and any ground remains unbuilt upon, it is generally
undrained, contains pools of stagnant water, and is made a depôt for
dunghills and all kinds of filth.”

Of 687 streets, inspected by a voluntary association in that town, 248 were reported as being unpaved, 112 ill ventilated, 352 as containing stagnant pools, heaps of refuse, ordure, &c.

“The state of some of the streets and courts examined was found by
tile inspectors abominable beyond description, and exhibited a
melancholy picture of the filthy condition and unwholesome atmosphere
in which a large portion of our poor are doomed to live.

“As an example I will extract the description given of Little Ireland
from the proceedings of the Special Board of Health, which I have been
permitted to examine through the kindness of the borough-reeve, John
Brooks, Esq.:—

“‘The undersigned having been deputed by the Special Board of Health
to inquire into the state of Little Ireland, begs to report that, in
some of the streets and courts abutting, the sewers are all in a most
wretched state, and quite inadequate to carry off the surface water,
not to mention the slops thrown down by the inhabitants in about 200
houses. The privies are in a most disgraceful state, inaccessible from
filth, and too few for the accommodation of the number of people, the
average number being two to 250 people. The upper rooms are, with few
exceptions, very dirty, and the cellars much worse, all damp, and some
occasionally overflowed. The cellars consist of two rooms on a floor,
each nine or ten feet square, some inhabited by ten persons, others by
more; in many the people have no beds, and keep each other warm by
close stowage on shavings, straw, &c.; a change of linen or clothes is
an exception to the common practice. Many of the back-rooms, where
they sleep, have no other means of ventilation than from the front
rooms. Some of the cellars on the lower ground were once filled up as
uninhabitable, but one is now occupied by a weaver, and he has stopped
up the drain with clay to prevent the water flowing from it into his
cellar, and mops up the water every morning.’

“The above description represents as faithfully the present state of
this place as it did its condition eight years ago. In addition to the
circumstances here mentioned, the unhealthiness of this spot is
further increased by its low and damp situation, in a deep hollow,
bounded on one side by a filthy and stinking brook, which readily
overflows after rain; on another, by a very steep embankment; and on
another, by a high wall, which separates it from the gas-works, and
surrounded moreover by numerous high factories. * * *

“In the open space in the centre, which was formerly uncovered,
numerous pigsties are now erected, which add, if possible, to its
insalubrity. All the streets on the west side of the square are
blocked up at the end by a high wall, so that each forms a
_cul-de-sac_, a mode of construction which precludes the possibility
of effectual ventilation. Close to this wall, at the upper end of
these streets, are placed filthy and dilapidated privies, with large
open cesspools, which are frequently full to overflowing. The present
condition of those in Bent and James Leigh-streets are disgusting and
offensive beyond description.”

_Mr. Baker_ in his report on the sanitary condition of the residences of the labouring classes in Leeds, thus describes their external condition:—

“The river Aire, which courses about a mile and a half through the
town, is liable suddenly to overflow from violent or continued rains,
or from the sudden thawing of heavy falls of snow. The lower parts and
dwellings, both in its vicinity and in that of the becks, are not
unfrequently therefore inundated; and as the depth of the cellars is
below the means of drainage, the water has to be pumped out by
hand-pumps on to the surface of the streets. In those parts of the
town, and particularly where the humbler classes reside, during these
inundations, and where there are small sewers, the water rises through
them into the cellars, creating miasmatic exhalations, and leaving
offensive refuse, exceedingly prejudicial to the health as well as to
the comfort of the inhabitants. It was stated, on the authority of one
of the registrars, that during a season remarkable for an
unprecedented continuation of hot weather, that in one of these
localities, the deaths were as three to two, while in other parts of
the town, at the same period, they were as two to three. The condition
of the Timble Bridge beck is doubtless much worse for drainage
purposes than formerly, for the bottom has been raised by continual
deposits, until the oldest water-wheel upon it has had to be removed
as useless and inoperative; and stepping-stones, once the means of
passage over it, are at this moment said to be buried under the
accumulation of years, as much as one or two feet in depth. It is
quite clear, therefore, that that which was once the main receptacle
for the drainage of an entire district is, in its present state, no
longer capable of fulfilling that purpose; and that though a
considerable amount of drainage might still be effected by it, yet,
unless emptied of its superfluous matter, it cannot now be made
available for the wants of the entire population on its course.

“In an inundation about the period of 1838 or 1839, which happened in
the night, this beck overflowed its boundaries so greatly, and
regurgitated so powerfully into petty drains communicating with houses
100 yards distant from its line, that many of the inhabitants were
floated in their beds, and fever to a large amount occurred from the
damp and exhalations which it occasioned. Of the 586 streets of Leeds,
68 only are paved by the town, _i. e._, by the local authorities; the
remainder are either paved by owners, or are partly paved, or are
totally unpaved, with the surfaces broken in every direction, and
ashes and filth of every description accumulated upon many of them. In
the manufacturing towns of England, most of which have enlarged with
great rapidity, the additions have been made without regard to either
the personal comfort of the inhabitants or the necessities which
congregation requires. To build the largest number of cottages on the
smallest allowable space seems to have been the original view of the
speculators, and the having the houses up and tenanted, the _ne plus
ultra_ of their desires. Thus neighbourhoods have arisen in which
there is neither water nor out-offices, nor any conveniences for the
absolute domestic wants of the occupiers. But more than this, the land
has been disposed of in so many small lots, to petty proprietors, who
have subsequently built at pleasure, both as to outward form and
inward ideas, that the streets present all sorts of incongruities in
the architecture; causeways dangerous on account of steps, cellar
windows without protection, here and there posts and rails, and
everywhere clothes-lines intersecting them, by which repeated
accidents have been occasioned. During the collection of the
statistical information by the Town Council, many cases of broken legs
by these unprotected cellars, and of horsemen dismounted by neglected
clothes-lines hanging across the streets, were recorded.

“It might be imagined that at least the streets over which the town
surveyors have a legal right to exercise control would be sewered. But
this is not the case; of the 68 streets which they superintend, 19 are
not sewered at all, and 10 are only partly so; nay, it is only within
the three or four years past that a sewer has been completed through
the main street for two of the most populous wards of the town,
embracing together a population of 30,540 persons, by which to carry
off the surface and drainage water of an elevation of 150 feet, where,
indeed, there could be no excuse for want of sufficient fall. I have
seen, in the neighbourhood to which I now refer, an attempt made to
drain the cottage houses into a small drain passing under the
causeway, and which afterwards had to be continued through a small
sewer, and through private property, by a circuitous route, in order
to reach its natural outlet, and the water from the surveyors’ drain
regurgitate into the cutting from the dwellings. It only needs to be
pointed out that the sewer which has subsequently been made, and is
most effective, is an evidence of the previous practicability of a
work so essential to the welfare of the people; but, I may add, that
many of the inhabitants of districts a little further distant from the
town, where fever is always rife, are yet obliged to use cesspools
which are constructed under their very doors, for the want of the
continuation of this desirable measure.

“Along the line of these two wards, and down the street which divides
them, and where this sewer has been recently made, numbers of streets
have been formed and houses erected without pavement, and hence
without surface drainage—without sewers—or if under drainage can be
called sewers, then with such as, becoming choked in a few months, are
even worse than if they were altogether without. The surface of these
streets is considerably elevated by accumulated ashes and filth,
untouched by any scavenger; they form nuclei of disease exhaled from a
thousand sources. Here and there stagnant water, and channels so
offensive that they have been declared to be unbearable, lie under the
doorways of the uncomplaining poor; and privies so laden with ashes
and excrementitious matter as to be unuseable prevail, till the
streets themselves become offensive from deposits of this description;
in short, there is generally pervading these localities a want of the
common conveniences of life.

“The courts and _culs-de-sac_ exist everywhere. The building of houses
back to back occasions this in a great measure. It is in fact part of
the economy of buildings that are to pay a good per centage. In one
_cul-de-sac_, in the town of Leeds, there are 34 houses, and in
ordinary times, there dwell in these houses 340 persons, or ten to
every house; but as these houses are many of them receiving houses for
itinerant labourers, during the periods of hay-time and harvest and
the fairs, at least twice that number are then here congregated. The
name of this place is the Boot and Shoe-yard, in Kirkgate, a location
from whence the Commissioners removed, in the days of the cholera, 75
cart-loads of manure, which had been untouched for years, and where
there now exists a surface of human excrement of very considerable
extent, to which these impure and unventilated dwellings are
additionally exposed. This property is said to pay the best annual
interest of any cottage property in the borough.”

_Mr. Shaw_, the medical officer of the Hindley district of the Wigan union, after giving a similar description of the streets of that town, adds:—

“The greater number of cases of fever in Tuce is in a great degree to
be accounted for from the extremely filthy state of those places where
it has been worst. Some of the cases were much worse than others,
several being of the malignant kind of typhus. Most of the cases
happened in Broom-street, in Tuce, a very uncleanly place, whole pools
of stagnant water, decayed animal and vegetable matter, and many other
nuisances of alike description lying in heaps from one end of the
street to the other. It is extremely probable a little attention to
these matters would save the inhabitants from many of the diseases
with which they are now continually affected.”

_Dr. Waite_, in his report on the condition of the population at Lynn, states:—

“I have seen typhus fever rage in families, where the refuse of a
market-gardener was suffered to accumulate in a hole, immediately
before three or four houses, whilst families at fifty yards distant
from it were perfectly free.”

The report by _Mr. Anderson_, solicitor, on the sanitary condition of Inverness, exhibits the external features of the condition in which large proportions of the town population in Scotland are still allowed to remain in respect to all these defects:—

“From the very open or porous character of the subsoil, the grounds in
and around Inverness are seldom retentive of surface-water; and as
there is also a considerable inclination of the plain towards the
river, a good _drainage_ could be easily procured from almost every
part of the town. With the exception, however, of the principal
streets or thoroughfares, in which the best houses and shops are
situated, there are but few covered common sewers; and in the suburbs
generally, and from all the side alleys and closes, rain-water and
other accumulations pass away only by means of surface or open drains.
Hence among the dwellings of the poorer classes _stagnant pools_ very
frequently occur, and the drainage in these places, naturally bad
enough, is often purposely obstructed by the people, for the purpose
of adding to their _dunghill_ heaps or middens, which, as manure for
their potatoe-grounds, form the chief treasures of the poorer
cottagers and labourers. A gas and water company, established some
years ago, has afforded a great increase of comfort and cleanliness to
the buildings along the main thoroughfares; but to the back closes and
suburbs such _luxuries_ have not yet been extended, and hence the want
of order, decency, and comfort are painfully observable among them.
_Water-closets_ and _public privies_ are both rare, the consequences
of which, morally as well as physically, may be easily imagined, and
no doubt much infectious disease, if not occasioned, is harboured and
perpetuated by the want of them. The disgusting state of all the
bye-lanes and roads about Inverness proves what the people must suffer
on this account.

“As already stated, the dwellings of the humbler classes are in
general only _one_ story high, that is, they consist of a ground-floor
divided into two or three small apartments, with two or three
garret-rooms in the roof above, which is covered externally with turf
or straw thatch. Such buildings are often intermixed with houses of a
better description, and from being but seldom painted or whitewashed,
they have not a cheerful nor cleanly aspect. Most of them are provided
with small back courts or gardens, in which a few common vegetables
are grown; but their principal value is as stances for _pig-houses_
and dunghills, which in many instances are improperly allowed to rest
upon or touch the dwelling-houses; while it is not to be disguised
that cases exist where the _pig_, the _horse_, and the _cow_ all live
under the same roof with their owners, and the manure allowed to
accumulate there also. It is very common for a labourer’s _family_ to
have only a single apartment, or a room and a closet, while one room
is the usual accommodation rented by single persons, and that
frequently without a particle of ground attached.

“Amidst such a combination of unwholesome circumstances, it is rather
wonderful that malignant fever does not very greatly prevail in this
town. It is scarcely ever entirely free of it, and occasionally it
breaks out in some of its most contagious and dangerous forms, such as
measles, scarlet and typhus fever, and sometimes even small-pox,
spreading upwards among all classes of the community. The writer is
strongly inclined to believe that the comparative healthiness of
Inverness, notwithstanding its low and undrained position, is owing
chiefly to the salubrity of its climate, as influenced by its
situation, and the natural porousness of the soil.”

_The Provost of Inverness_, at the time the report was made, gives the following description of the town:—

“Inverness is a nice town, situated in a most beautiful country, and
with every facility for cleanliness and comfort. The people are,
generally speaking, a nice people, but their sufferance of nastiness
is past endurance. Contagious fever is seldom or ever absent; but for
many years it has seldom been rife in its pestiferous influence. The
people owe this more to the kindness of Almighty God than to any means
taken or observed for its prevention. There are very few houses in
town which can boast of either water-closet or privy, and only two or
three public privies in the better part of the place exist for the
great bulk of the inhabitants. Hence there is not a street, lane, or
approach to it that is not disgustingly defiled at all times, so much
so as to render the whole place an absolute nuisance. The _midden_ is
the chief object of the humble, and though enough of water for
purposes of cleanliness may be had by little trouble, still as the
ablutions are seldom, MUCH filth in-doors and out of doors _must_ be
their portion. When cholera prevailed in Inverness, it was more fatal
than in almost any other town of its population in Britain.”

Such is the absence of civic economy in some of our towns that their condition in respect to cleanliness is almost as bad as that of an encamped horde, or an undisciplined soldiery. Mr. Baker applies to Leeds the observations made by Sir John Pringle in his Treatise on the Diseases of the Army, but they are equally applicable to the districts occupied by the labouring classes wherever this inquiry has been carried:—

“‘The chief cause of dysentery appears to be the foul straw and the
privies; for as soon as we had left that ground on which we had been
long encamped the sickness visibly abated.’ And again he says, ‘The
greatest source of dysenteric affections appears to be the privies.’
And again, speaking of bad air as producing epidemics, he systematizes
the mediate agent thus; ‘1st, Marsh effluvia; 2ndly, Encampment near
trees; 3rdly, The privies and foul straw of a camp; and 4thly, A pent,
corrupt, and vitiated atmosphere.’”

The discipline of the army has advanced beyond the civic economy of the towns. In the standing orders given and enforced by the late General Crauford there are the following from Article 2, on the interior regimental arrangements on arriving in camp or quarters:—

“It must be explained to the men, as a standing order, that when no
regular necessaries are made, nor any particular spot pointed out for
easing themselves, they are to go to the rear, at least 200 yards,
beyond the sentries of the rear guard; all men disobeying this order
must be punished.

“The captain of the day and the quarter-master under the commanding
officers, are particularly responsible for the cleanliness of the camp
of each regiment; and the field officer of the inlying piquet, who is
charged with the superintendence of the police, and cleanliness of the
camp or quarters of the brigade, will give such orders upon the
subject as may be necessary to the captain of the day.”

The towns whose population never change their encampment, have no such care, and whilst the houses, streets, courts, lanes, and streams, are polluted and rendered pestilential, the civic officers have generally contented themselves with the most barbarous expedients, or sit still amidst the pollution, with the resignation of Turkish fatalists, under the supposed destiny of the prevalent ignorance, sloth, and filth.

Whilst such neglects are visited by the scourge of a regularly recurring pestilence and ravages of death more severe than a war, it may be confidently stated that the exercise of attention, care, and industry, directed by science in their removal, will not only be attended by exemptions from the pains of the visitation, but with exemptions from pecuniary burdens, and with promise even of the profits of increased production to the community.

This will appear from an examination of the present mode of removing the refuse from towns, and contrasting it with improved methods; and first with relation to the refuse of the houses:—

It is proved that the present mode of retaining refuse in the house in cesspools and privies is injurious to the health and often extremely dangerous. The process of emptying them by hand labour, and removing the contents by cartage, is very offensive, and often the occasion of serious accidents. But the expense of this mode operates, as the reports from the large towns show, as a complete barrier to all cleanliness in this respect in the dwellings or streets occupied by the labouring classes. The usual cost of cleansing cesspools of a tenement in London is about 1_l._ each time. With a population generally in debt at the end of the week, and whose rents are collected weekly, such an outlay may be considered as practically impossible, and the inferior landlords delay incurring the expense until the nuisance becomes unbearable. In London the expense and annoyance of the cleansing of such places is avoided for years, until they are in the condition described by _Mr. Howell_, one of the council of the Society of Civil Engineers, who has acted extensively as a surveyor in the metropolis:—

“I would,” he states, “instance a recent case in my own parish, where
I was called to survey two houses about to undergo extensive repairs.
It was necessary that my survey should extend from the garrets to the
cellars: upon visiting the latter, I found the whole area of the
cellars of both houses were full of night-soil, to the depth of three
feet, which had been permitted for years to accumulate from the
overflow of the cesspools; upon being moved, the stench was
intolerable, and no doubt the neighbourhood must have been more or
less infected by it. I should mention, that these houses are letting
at from 30_l._ to 40_l._ a-year each, and are situated in a
considerable public thoroughfare.