Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the parish of Alverstoke, in the county of Southampton / by William Ranger, Superintending Inspector.

William Ranger

Date:: 1852

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the parish of Alverstoke, in the county of Southampton / by William Ranger, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

26/78 (page 24)

$2i The Condition of the Gessiyooh. also stated that there were no dwellings in Gosport Avithouf one, unless indeed it were of the poorest kind, and unpro-^- vided with any species of privy accommodation whatever. In but very few instances are any of the cesspools furnished with overflow drains. Indeed, the almost entire absence of under-ground sewerage is sufficient to prevent t their formation ; inconvenience and annoyance enough being 5 experienced from the collections of waste water and house u refase in the existing surface channels, without their offen'- sive condition being made worse by the discharge into them of the contents of the cesspools. . In the absence of any means of drainage to carry off the \ night soil, each householder is compelled to have his cess- • pool emptied by manual labour, and in many instances the contents have to be carried through the house. The cosfe of this process is in itself considerable, but the 'evil consequences resulting from it are of much more serious, importance. ] It is now matter of familiar knowledge that the con- tents of cesspools when in an advanced state of decom- position, emit gases of a most deadly nature. But cesspools 'are seldom emptied untU they are full; that is, not imtil the contents from their long detention have passed into an advanced stage of decomposition; consequently, the time when cesspools are generally emptied is precisely that when they are in the most deleterious condition. ljut the evils caused by the cesspools in Gosport are not confined to those only which arise from the removal of their- contents. It is stated by the Rev. James Tanner (Appendix, page 58), That some of the cesspools are made in clay, others in gravel, and steined with brick laid dry. When the surrounding soil consists of clay, but little infiltration may take place; but when it is composed of gravel, the night soil must find its way tlirougli the bricks with whicli the cesspool is lined. The dimensions of each cesspool are generally 6 feet by 4 feet, and 8 feet deep, so that the surrounding soil must to a very serious extent be charged with the poisonous gases emitted from the night-soil during its decomposing stages. I need hardly say that these gases do not, and, cannot, remain in the soil. They either force their way into the atmosphere, or into some neiglibouring weU, the waters of which are in consequence rendered uuAvholesome and dan- gfirous. With reference to this last-named evil, indeeil, more than one of the witnesses drew attention to the polluted condition of the water in the numerous shallow wells, and assigned the inliltration from the cesspools as a reason for it.$