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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    48 The want of such conveniences is considered to be a great public evil. Very many speak as having expe¬ rienced much personal suffering, and many, to avoid of¬ fending public decency, have endured the torments of reten¬ tion of urine till serious effects have followed, which some¬ times have not been remedied for years; even death itself has ensued from this cause. There is not a surgeon in London who has not had many cases of severe suffering from the want of these accommodations. Public urinals might be erected in many places without in¬ convenience, and they would be a great blessing to thousands every day. They might be erected in the streets as well as in the parks. They should, however, be better constructed for privacy than those generally placed against public-houses, which greatly offend decency. They should be regularly visited to ascertain that their drainage is perfect. It is suggested that they should be very differently con¬ structed from those at Westminster-bridge and at some other places, inasmuch as from the insufficient manner in which persons in them are protected from view common decency is much outraged. One or two consider that the experience of Paris is unfavourable to the existence of cabinets d’aisance, while others again state that they have there felt the great conve¬ nience of them. WATER SUPPLIES. [22.] Are the poor adequately supplied with water ? This question has been answered in the negative by all from whom returns have been received, with the exception of two, who state they have heard no complaint on the sub¬ ject of an inadequate supply of water to the poor. In some courts there is no water at all supplied to the inhabitants, and the poor people are obliged to procure it at a distance from their homes, at a considerable amount of labour. The water has in some instances been cut off from the courts, in