Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public.

  • Health of Towns Association (London, England)
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    all persons residing on the same level are called upon for the same amount of rate, whether they have sewers in their re- spective neighbourhoods or not; and thus they are compelled to pay for those advantages which particular localities only possess. There are no less than seven different Commissions of Sewers within ten miles of the Post-office ; these trusts are as follows:—1. The City Commission; 2. The Westmin¬ ster ; 3. The Holborn and Finsbury ; 4. The Tower Ham¬ lets; 5. The Blackwall; 6. The Kent and Surrey; and 7, The Regent-street Commission. The names of more than 700 persons are now comprised in these Commissions, up¬ wards of 300 of whom have qualified. This number is un¬ necessarily large, and is represented as being the frequent cause of obstruction to business. When we consider who the Commissioners of Sewers are, what the mode of their appointment, and the ancient statute by which their proceed¬ ings are governed, we shall cease to wonder at the present defective state of the sewerage of the Metropolis, and we shall no longer be surprised in finding that in those places where the population is most dense, and consequently where sewTers are most needed, there they exist not; and simply for this reason—because the inhabitants of those crowded loca¬ lities are extremely poor, and the landlords of the wretched tenements are but little better. While thus the proprietors of houses in these unhealthy localities are in many instances unable, and in most cases unwilling, to contribute towards the construction of sewers, the Commissioners refuse, with¬ out the payment of their proportion, which is sometimes a third of the whole expense, to undertake the much-needed wrork; hence it follows that the poor suffer in their bodily health, the rate-payers are more heavily assessed, and the humane and charitable are solicited for increased contribu¬ tions to hospitals and other charities, which have for their object the relief of the helpless and infirm. It is the la¬ bouring classes who are chiefly interested in these sanitary defects, and in their cure, and any legislative measure which will tend to improve their condition will be hailed with great satisfaction by the whole community. [10.] Are there any open drains or sewers, and if any, are you aware of any cases of disease having arisen from their effluvia ? There are many open drains and open sewers which con¬ stantly emit deleterious gases from the decomposition of