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 town and parish of Brixham, in the county of Devon / by Alfred L. Dickens, Superintending Inspector.

  • Dickens, Alfred L.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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 town and parish of Brixham, in the county of Devon / by Alfred L. Dickens, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/67 (page 17)
    wide ; it may be conceived therefore that the statement of bhhSiam. some of the inhabitants, that it is impossible for them to jear the place without shutting their doors and windows, is not exaggerated. On the surface of the streets are to be seen—here, the leads, tails, and entrails of fish in various stages of decompo- sition—there, a heap of potato parings or cabbage leaves, mlf rotten, waiting until a heavy shower shall carry iiem down to a lower level, or until some child shall throw ;hem through the gratings of the gully holes into the V sewer below. It is to be remembered that, except in times )f heavy rains, these imperfect sewers are completely dry. n no instance are there drains from sinks into them. The slops from the houses are thrown on to the surface, and the ■ >ide drains and channels are so badly constructed, that the ■ iquid rarely find its way to the gully gratings. ~ In times of heavy rains the impurities from the upper aters of houses are washed down on the tier, below them. There is generally a narrow open surface dram constructed : it the side of the steps forming the communication between he tiei's of houses, but it is wholly inadequate to protect be houses below from the effect of the rain floods. r Even with the substantial benefits derivable from a properly arranged system of drainage and water supply, most of these t] louses, dark, low, and dismal as they are, would be but lorry residences. The complaints of their inmates are loud md frequent, showing that although such demoralizing nfluences are at work, as the almost total want, amongst a ;arge number of-inhabitants, of the ordinary accommoda- rions alike necessary for decency and health, there is still a ' eeling of shame and -disgust surviving the practices they. • ire publicly compelled to follow. . It is not only the physical evils produced by this existing tfcate of things that are to be deplored, but the perpetuation ; )f such a system is calculated to blunt and debase the moral feelings of those who are subject to their influences. Chil- . lren brought up in the midst of such an utter disregard of common decencies of life are prone to become demo- ralized from their familiarity with such scenes, and the -esult is too well known to those who observe and study . be effects produced by such causes. The genei-al supply of water, for all purposes, for the part ;. )f Brixham I have described, is derived from the storing of ^ be rain water, collected in large square tanks constructed )f slabs of stone or slate jointed in cement. There are no [25.1 b