278 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



ing them, by medic «1 ami other officers. Some of these investigations, both 

 local ami on specific subjecls, are yet in progress. 



We Iiavegreat salisfaciiou in vppiesenlingto yonr Majesty that in these 

 local inquiries a lively and cordial interest was taken by the inhabitants ; 

 the Commissioners were everywhere well received, and obtained ready assist- 

 ance from persons of every class and denomination. 



In addition to these our investigations, we promoted renewed inquiries by 

 others into the sanatory state of several towns and populous districts, more 

 especially of those places where the growth of the population has been at- 

 tended by a high rate of mortality. Some of these renewed inquiries have 

 beenofacloser and of amore comprehensive nature than those previously 

 made, and have been conducted by persons of special qualifications from long 

 attention to the subject, and acquaintance with the habits and condition of 

 the population, thus possessnig the best means of insuring approximation to 



accuracy. ... 



As an example, of a toH n chiefly commercial, the report. relating to Liver- 

 pool, by Dr. Duncan, physician to the Liverpool Dispensary, shows the threat j 

 extent of morlalily, of which the local authorities and the principal inhabi- 

 tants appear to have been, up to a recent period, unaware, but which has 

 been fully established by the returns in the registers of deaths. Competent 

 witnesses concur in ascribing such an extent of mortality to the general want 

 of drainage and cleansing, ill-conditioned dwellings, defective ventilation, 

 scanty supplies of water, and to other causes capable of remedy. 



As an instance of a population almost entirely engaged m manufaelures, ! 

 whose increasing numbers have also been accompanied by a progressive dimi- f 

 nulion of mean age at death, as appear^ from an oxaminat.oi. of the parochial 

 and other re-isters, we submit the Report upon the Sanatory htate of Preston, 

 by the Rev Mr. Clay, and a committee of the inhabitaiUs ol that to»n. 



'The report ol Mr. Hawksley. on the Condition of the Labouring Population 

 of the Town of Nottingham, affords an example, of widely different rates of 

 mortality, prevalent in different districts, and among .hfferent classes in the 



same town. „ • . . iv . • . c 



The returns obtained from the Ecclesall Bierlow Registration District of 

 the mortality, as well as the rate of the births, which obtains amongst the 

 artisans chiefly engaged in the manufacture of cutlery at Sheffield, eshibits 

 the different rates of mortality prevalent among artisans ol similar occupa- 

 tions, when resident in the closer parts of the towns, or in the more open 



suburbs. , . ■ ■ a c 



To aiford further information with respect to the extensive influence of one 

 particular cause, namely, defective drainage, on another class of artizans en- 

 gaged in one general occupation, we append the returns, which exhibit the 

 results of a local in<iuiry, of ihe different r.ites of mortality prev.ilent, in the 

 well and ill-draineil streets, almost exclusively occupied by themanulaclurers 

 of slockin"-^ at Leicester. Tlie leport of Mr. Holland, surgeon, of Chorlton- 

 upon-Medlock, presents an instance of the decrease in the rales of mortality 

 that miv be eflected by the proper drainage of streets. 



A turther advance made in the investigation of the causes of mortality, is 

 displayed in the report of Dr. Laycock, tracing back, for upwards of two cen- 

 turies the operation of like physical causes, in the production of different 

 forms' of epidemic disease prevalent under similar conditions, always in the 

 greatest intensity in the same quarters in the ancient metropolitan city and 

 county town of York.--lhese reports present examples of causes of mortality 

 capable of removal, and which were found to prevail in a greater or less de- 

 gree in each of the towns and populous districts examined by the members 

 of this commission. 



The Drainage. 

 On an examination of the state of the existing law respecting drainage, it 

 appears that the Statute of Sewers, 23 Henry VHL c. 5, under the provisiui^ 

 ol which the principal commissions of sewers for the metropolis are issued, 

 chiefly contemplates the drainage of surface waters. This statute, with other 

 "cneral laws applicable to the drainage of parts of the metropolis, has given 

 nse to a difference of opinion in regard to the powers conferred by them for 

 the extension of new sewers. By some commissions it is considered that, 

 even for the above limited purpose, the authority is restricted to the repair or 

 diversionof drains and seuers already in p.Kistence. 



The provisions of subsequent local Acts, even of a late date, which give 

 the power of forming new sewers, both in the metropolis and other towns, 

 still contemplate chielly the construction of works for the drainage of surface 

 waters The evidence shows that of the works hitherto executed the greater 

 part have been construcled only on demands lor the removal ol pressing in- 

 conveniences, and for the drainage of particular places. 



The witnesses state that for the most part the usages at present prevai ing, 

 and the bye-laws m force under the authority of these statutes, have been 

 (until two or three of Ihe commissions in the metropolis adapted their sewer- 

 age to ibe house-drainage), framed with a view to the maintenance of Ihe 

 drainage of surface water only, and without reference to that system which 

 is now admitted by all the medical witnesses to be of the greatest importance 

 to the public health, to the condition of the poorer classes, and ihe salubrity 

 of their dwellings, namelv, house-drainage and sewerage, and the constant 



removal of all decomposing vef^elable cr animal refuse, much of which might 

 be eflecled by means of the proper application oi water. 



In some of the larger .and most crowded towns, all entrance into the sewers 

 by house-drains, or drains from water-closels or eess-pools, is prohibited un- 

 der a penalty. In other places, including a pan of the metropolis, the en- 

 trance of house-drains is commonly deemed the concession of a privilege, 

 suhieclod to regulations and separate proceedings, with atteirdant expenses, 

 tending to restrict Ihe use of thi' sewers for these most important purposes, or 

 to confine the advantage to the wealthy. , , , , , 



In Ihe local Acts we have examined, and in the bye-laws and usages m 

 force under their authority, the use of the main drains is restricted under 

 penalties from that which, if they were properly constructed and sufficiently 

 supplied with water, it is stated, might be one of their mopt import.ant ser- 

 vices-namely. the rapid, effieicnt, and economical cleansing of a town of 

 surface refuse, mud, and filth. , . . , „ ,„ ,i„ 



These local Acts are found to be incomplete in various respects; they do 

 not contemplate, nor do they contain, any provision for a previous genera 

 survey of the whole extent of the area proper to be included for a perfect 

 system of drainage, which engineers examined on the subject stale, should 

 be comprehended under the same authority, in order to carry out measures 

 at once efficient and economical ; neither do they embrace the consideration 

 of the separate works which should be comprised w ilhin such area ; and they 

 do not provide securities for the proper qualifications of the paid officers, to 

 construct and superintend the maintenance of such works economically as well 



as efficiently. ,. .. , i ,i 



Several of the local Improvement Acts confer no jurisdiction beyond the 

 public highways, and give the authorities no powers lo drain or cleanse the 

 courts alleys, and closes inhabited by the poorer classes. In several impor- 

 tant towns which possess no separate legislative provisions, it appears that 

 the existing drainage, commonly most defective, has been carried out under 

 the powers given by the general Highway Act. In many towns the powers 

 "iven are neglected, and in most of them imperfectly exercised. 

 ° It appears' from llie unanimous statement of Ihe visiting cmmissioners, in 

 addition to an examination of the replies of the 50 towns on the subjects oi 

 drainage and cleansing, Ihat in scarcely one place can the drainage or sewer- 

 age be pronounced to be complete and good, while in seven it is indifferent, 

 and in 42 decidedly bad as regards Ihe districts inhabited by ihe poorer 

 classes The investigations within the several towns of Ihe arrangements for 

 house as connected with street cleansing, present nearly Ihe same results. 



It appears that the local statements and opinions on what is deemed to be 

 good cm only be received with reference to the imiierfect standards known 

 in those places In the answers it is often stated that the drainage of a town 

 is "ood where it has been found that only the principal streets have main 

 drSns or sewers, and where the houses in those streets are but imperfectly 

 provided with house or branch drains; while the most crowded portions of 

 the town those most densely inhabited by the poorer classes, are utterly 

 ne-lecled and have no drainage, Ihe refuse being allowed to accumulate and 

 decompose in open channels and pools, or to run into open and stagnant 

 dilf lies in the immediate vicinity of the houses. 



The le-islative measures more recently proposed for the sanatory improve- 

 ment of Towns have been directed chiefly to the extension of sewers into new 

 districts Competent witnesses have slated that these measures being unac- 

 companied by any securities for efficiency and economy of construction, 

 would only lead to the extension of works under the present system, m many 

 particulars defective, and entailing unnecessary expense. 



The measures proposed for tlie formation of house-drains have been on a 

 scale and principle of construction, which the evidence brought before us 

 shows to be frequently erroneous ; they have hilherto included no principle 

 or provision for ihe distribution over a series of years of the rates for defray- 

 in" the expense, which, if levied by one collection, would, as shown in evi- 

 df^.ce, often entirely absorb the immediate rents or profits of owners, and of 

 Ibe holders of short interests, who might derive but little benefit from the 

 permanent works. . 



Evidence has been produced before us, demonstrating that drains, when in 

 other respects properly constructed, would confer litlle comparative benefit, 

 if no provision be made for the introduction of supplies of water sufficient to 

 cleanse them. Instances are adduced where such drains have only extended 



existing evils. . . 



In districts in which both house and main drains exist, or are in course of 

 extension, on an imperfect system, we have received strong evidence, sho»-ing 

 liiat as these sewers and drains are so formed as to allow decomposing refuse 

 to accumulate, and to permit the escape of emanations into the streets or 

 houses, the inhabitants do not derive a benefit in proportion to the expense 



incurred. . ,. . ■ c 



In the examination of the chairman of the Westminster division of sewers, 

 will be found recited some of the medical testimony and complaints as to the 

 effect of Ihe emanations from the sewers which pass through the Strand, and 

 oilier portions of that division of the metropolis. Mr. Dyce Guthrie sur- 

 geon, who has paid great attention to the subject of house-dramage, and who 



