Papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh. 1839 / published by authority of a Committee of the Commissioners of Police.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh. 1839 / published by authority of a Committee of the Commissioners of Police. 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.

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    St Leonard’s, form the boundary of these two systems. Hence it fol- lows, that almost all the New Town is drained naturally by the Water of Leith, as well as the southern part of the town ; while the Old Town is drained in the direction of Restalrig. It follows, likewise, that there are two systems of meadows—the one extending from Dairy and Colt- bridge toward Slateford and Corstorphine ; the other from the neigh- bourhood of Holyrood towards Restalrig and Seafield. The one system lies to the west of Edinburgh, the other to the east. This leads us to inquire into the direction of the winds passing over these meadows. The winds blow at Edinburgh mostly from the east or the west. About 230 days westerly, and 135 easterly. It follows that, with the rare exceptions of winds due north or due south, no wind can prevail at Edinburgh without passing over the Corstorphine or the Restalrig meadows, blowing about five days over the former to three over the latter. The configuration of the ground and the direction of the val- leys, scooped out of the “plateaux,” modifies the action of the currents of air ; for the Calton Hill on the one side, and Arthur’s Seat on the other, concentrate the east wind as in a funnel, and direct it in mass, loaded with vapours, on Holyrood, the South Back of the Canongate, and the Cowgate, on one hand ; and on the other on the North Back of the Canongate, the Low Calton, and under the North Bridge and the Regent’s Bridge, into the New Town ; thus turning the position of the Calton Hill, no longer available for repelling the enemy. A third column of wind likewise runs up between Salisbury Crags and the Plea- sance, turning Arthur’s Seat, and penetrating to the southern part of the town. Thus no part of the city is free from the east wind, against which two hills are reared in vain ; for in Hygiene, as in tactics, de- tached redoubts are easily turned. As for the west wind, collecting all the noxious exhalations, “ echellonn.es,” on the Glasgow road, it di- vides into four columns, and pours into the city by the Bruntsfield Links, by the West Port, by the Prince’s Street gardens, and by the pleasant village of Water of Leith—sweeping round Moray Place to Stockbridge, Royal Circus, and Great King Street. The Castle is no security against it, and everything is open to its attack. Thus every part of the city is exposed to the east and to the west wind. Let us now endeavour to ascertain the extent of the meadows which engage our attention. Without affecting precision, we may say, that the meadows to the west extend two miles in length by one in breadth, and contain about two square miles—while those to the east of the city may be about two miles long, by half a mile broad, and contain perhaps one square mile. The sum total is three square miles—that is, 1920, or about 2000 acres, equivalent to 87,120,000 square feet of poisonous swamp. ' This, then, is the surface covered with the drainage of the city, where it is spread out in small currents, which sink into the ground till it be completely saturated, like a sponge. The sun, acting on the ground so prepared, decomposes the animal and vegetable matter there deposited, and gives rise to all those effects formerly enumerated ; while, whatever wind may blow, the exhalations are wafted from one or the other system of drainage to every part of the town. We now come to consider the quantity of “ debris” daily carried
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