First report. : Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis.

  • Great Britain. Metropolitan Sanitary Commission
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report. : Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    29/204 (page 23)
    (^The following paper teas delivered in hy the Witness.) Tables showing the Number of Persons sleeping in one Room, its dimensions, and tlie times ■when death would take phice, provided there were no ventilation; those houses form courts and streets in a nearly direct line from the Betlmal Green to the Whitechapel-road, a distance of half a mile. In calculating these fables, the following data have been used, namely, that each respiration is 40 cubic inches (Menzies), the respirations 20 per minute (Haller), and that the existence of 'OSths of carbonic acid gas is destructive (Liebig). Parliament-court consists of 9 houses, each containing 2 rooms, and a small washhouse (30 square feet), and a yard, of about the same size, less the space occupied by the privy ; the pressure of the ■water is so little that No. 9 is very badly supplied; No. 8 somewhat better, and the other houses tolerably well three times per week. No. Height. Lengtli. Breadth. Ko.'of Persons. Death produced in 1 •2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Ft. in. 1 >7 8 J Ft. in. 10 G Ft. in. 9 7< 2 9 4 2 9 4 3 5 h. m. 31 37 7 1 15 49 31 37 7 1 15 49 21 5 12 39 A little court out of Parliament-court contains four houses ; they have one privy in common in the open court; having no back premises, they obtain their water from a stand pipe three times a week. No. Height. Length. Breadth. No. of Persons. Death produced in 1 2 3 4 Ft. in. [,. Ft. in. 10 C Ft. in. 10 2| 2 2 2 4 h. m. 31 8 31 8 31 8 15 34 Jubilee-place consists of eight houses, having no back premises ; there are two privies in the open yard in front of the houses common to them ; there is but one stand-pipe, from which water is obtained three times a-week. The houses Nos. 3 and'4 have a drain passing under the floor ; they stink most abominably, and the paint (white lead) is blacked by its conversion into sulphuret of lead. This couit is approached by a very narrow alley, and has no ventilation ; it is a stagnant lake of air loaded with putridity. No. Height. Length. Breadth. No. of Persons. Death produced in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ft. in. >6 9 ! J Ft. in. 10 5 Ft. in. f 9 10^ 6 1 3 3 9 7 G 8 li. m. - 9 27 55 42 18 54 18 54 6 18 8 6 9 '27 7 G • Little CoHingwood-street is divided into two ]iortions, one contains 20 houses, and the other 22, a little smaller than the former; four of the houses in the first division are wholly without water, and their inhabitants have to beg it of their neighbours, who, in supplying it, subject themselves to a penalty of, I believe, 5Z. The first 10 houses are supplied by a stand-pipe, each householder having a key. This stand-pipe is the cause of much quarrelling ior turns, and because it is frequently left running, and thereby annoys the person wlio lives in the house next it, frequently floating the floor ; the other houses all have the water laid on. No. Heiglit. Length. Breadth. No. of Persons. Death produced in Ft. in. Ft. in. Ft. In. h. ra. 1 1 8 6 47 2 6 9 2 3 4 13 34 4 2 27 7 5 empty 6 6 9' 2 7 8 5 6 10 9 51 2 9 2 27 7 11 13 V 7 9 9 11 9 5 < 7 O 7 18 45 5 14 6 9 2 15 5 10 51 16 6 9 2 17 2 27 7 18 6 9 2 19 4 13 34 20 •I 27 7 21 7 7 45 23 5 10 51