1866. | The Sanitary Condition of Bristol. 485 
There are some distilleries, which at times throw off large 
volumes of the vapour of fusel oil, when clearing their apparatus 
for a fresh charge; several sugar refineries, which poison the 
atmosphere with the disgusting odour of raw sugar during the 
blowing-up process; several tallow-chandlers and grease refineries, 
from which issue the vile odours of melted fat and animal matters 
in a state of decomposition. 
Bone works are also present, whence the odours of burnt bones 
and fetid ammoniacal matters mix their repulsive stenches, poison- 
ing the air for miles around ; also chemical manufactories, whence 
sulphurous and hydro-chloric acids diffuse themselves far too 
plenteously into the winds of heaven, and from which the effluvia 
of waste black ash or soda waste emanate, creating great nuisances 
to all around their influence. 
Then the gas-works add their quota of vile odours by discharging 
large quantities of fetid lime out of the purifying vats, which also 
sometimes poison the wells by furnishing hypo-sulphite of lime to 
the various mineral constituents of the springs. 
The slaughter-houses, skin depéts, and various tanneries may 
also be added to the list of local nuisances, many of the latter 
existing along the line of the open Froome, and poisoning the 
neighbourhood by their open fleshing-pits for depilating the hides 
and skins. These being now within the boundary of the rapidly 
oe city should be all closed by the powers of the Board of 
ealth. 
In spite of all these causes of disease and mortality, the death- 
rate of Bristol has been very much lower than many of the other 
large towns of England, as shown by the Registrar’s Weekly Returns. 
Frequently the rate has been one of the lowest, sometimes not 
higher than 18 or 19, but 22 to 25 per 1,000 being the average 
mortality, which was only exceeded last year during a few weeks, 
when typhus got the better of the medical profession and the 
defective sanitary arrangements of the city. 
The general impression which strangers invariably receive on 
visiting the city of Bristol, is the prevalent dirty condition of the 
streets and public walks. The dirty approaches to the city from 
the railway termini and the narrow crowded state of the principal 
thoroughfares, some of which are perfectly inadequate to take the 
streams of vehicles, and are often so blocked up that no traffic can 
pass. These are also lined by houses inhabited by the tradesmen 
and artificers of the city. Some of these thoroughfares are so 
narrow that it is possible to converse freely across the street from 
window to window, and in some portions even to shake hands 
easily from one side to the other out of opposite windows. These 
streets have not been altered since the days when all the traffic was 
conducted on pack-horses and mules. 
