Observations on foul water irrigation : founded on a personal survey of different districts of the city, and an examination of their comparative salubrity, being a reply to certain statements made at a meeting of the Town-Council on the 2d April, 1839 / by William Tait.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on foul water irrigation : founded on a personal survey of different districts of the city, and an examination of their comparative salubrity, being a reply to certain statements made at a meeting of the Town-Council on the 2d April, 1839 / by William Tait. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    16/16 page 16
    where cleanliness ought to be most attended to, as they are deprived of the free and refreshing circulation of air which the streets and open parts of the town enjoy. In tliat stair in Bull’s Close, Canongate, where so many cases of fever occurred, there is a place at the foot of it where ashes and other refuse are daily deposited, and it is impossible to say how much this might have contributed to the spread of fever in this quarter. Is it not the duty of the Cleaning Committee to look after tiiis kind of nuisance ? is it consistent with their knowledge that such nuisances exist ? is it with their sanction that the dung collected in the High Street and other parts is conveyed to depots situated in Blackfriar’s Wynd ? and that many of the back courts leading from that wynd are in such a state of filth, that it is almost impossible to breathe in them. If ignorance is the cause of the existence of such nuisances, our hints may be the means of remedy- ing, them ; if intention or neglect is the cause, some one must be deserv- ing of censure, and the public have a right to complain. Every one ac- customed tojinhale the polluted atmosphere of these confined and dirty closes, would consider it a privilege to be permitted to breathe that of the irrigated meadows. ii, Drummotid Street^ May 6, 1839, .
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3