Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town.

Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    localities, and that fever to a serious extent also occasionally prevails, but gene- rally speaking, the district is comparatively healthy ; diseases which often prevail in an epidemic form elsewhere, such as dysentery, small pox, continued fever, &c, are here not often met with, and there are no diseases which can be considered endemic to the district, with perhaps one exception, dracunculus or guinea-worm. This opinion is I am aware opposed to what is generally understood, or what might be expected by any one only acquainted with the external appear- ance of the district; for a certainty it contains within itself to an extent seldom met with, all those causes which are acknowledged to produce premature old age, disease and death—viz., a dense population and its usual concomitants, in- sufficient ventilation and extreme uncleanliness, the sewerage and drainage are of the very worst description and the scavengering is most imperfectly per- formed ; indeed as far as my own observations go, the work performed by the Scavengers is to carry off the refuse of the town, from the more public streets and to throw it down in any hole or corner close at hand, but less exposed to the public eye. There are 4 burying grounds within the limits of 2d District—viz., 2 in Vepery and 2 in Pursewauk. I have been unable myself to trace any disease to the noxious influence of these grave-yards, but as they are stituated in low and damp localities and in the midst of a dense population, I have no doubt but they do at times exercise an injurious influence on the health of the com- munity, and it was the opinion of my predecessor Doctor Eichmond that they did do so. The quantity of vegetation about the west and north side of the district is such as seriously to impede the free circulation of air, and thus ventilation is obstructed in a quarter where it is most essentially required; this growing evil is becoming one of such magnitude as will soon force itself, from its inju- rious consequence upon the health of the community, on the serious attention of the authorities. As the district is divided into three divisions each present- ing some peculiar feature as regards its sanitary condition, I will offer a few remarks on each, beginning at the west end of the district. KILPAUK.—This division contains comparatively few native inhabitants; the villages are small and at a considerable distance from each other, there are here numerous excellent gentlemen's houses surrounded by large compounds ; cocoanut trees abound in this part of the 2d District, , every compound contains them and extensive plantations are springing up in every unoccupied space. No sooner does a house become the property of a Native or East Indian than he plants the compound with cocoanut trees, and so dense are some of these plantations that they form a barrier perfectly impervious to the sea or land
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