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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[August, 



Having stateJ the causes, to ^\hich our investigations into the condition 

 of the inhabitants of large towns and popnlous districts have led us to ascribe 

 much of the prevalent disease and mortality, we proceed, in obedience to the 

 instructions contained in your Majesty's Commission, to offer recommenda- 

 tions for the amendment of the laws at present in force relating to the sena- 

 tory condition of your Majesty's subjects. 



Vt'e now lay before your Majesty a short outline of the measures which 

 appear to us to be necessary for this purpose ; and then proceed more in de- 

 tail to state our reasons and such observations as occur to us on each branch 

 of the subject. 



We have arranged the different branches of the subject in the following 

 order : — 



1. Drainage, including house and main drainage, and the drainage of any 

 space not covered with houses, yet influencing the health of the inhabitants. 



2. The paving of public streets, and courts and alleys. 



3. Cleansing; comprising the removal of all refuse matter not carried off 

 by drainage, and the removal of nuisances. 



4. A supply of water for public purposes and private use. 



5. The construction and ventilation of buildings for promoting and secur- 

 ing the health of the inhabitants. 



General deficiency of drainage. 



Among the evils, which appear to operate with the greatest severity 

 on the condition of all, and especially of the labouring classes, are those 

 arising from the absence of a proper attention to drainage. They prevail 

 almost universally, to an extent altogether incompatible with the main- 

 tenance of the public health ; and even in those places where recent im- 

 provements have been effected, a desirable standard is far from having been 

 attained, either in respect to the perfection of the necessary arrangements for 

 drainage, or of economy in executing the works. 



Defective drainage in Towns of Staffordshire and S. Wales. 



The most serious deficiencies in drainage are found to exist in these towns' 

 which have advanced within a brief period from the condition of villages' 

 chiefly the seats of the pottery and iron manufactures in Staffordshire, and 

 the mining districts in South Wales, Monmouthshire, and the north of Eng- 

 land. As an example of this description of towns, Merl/iijr Tydvil, at pre- 

 sent containing above 37,000 inhabitants, presents the most lamentable in- 

 stance of the total absence of all drainage. The rapidly increasing suburbs 

 of large towns which are without the municiple boundary, or to which the 

 jurisdiction of a local Act does not extend, present similar examples of neg- 

 lect, and strongly exhibit the necessity of the establishment of an eflicient 

 local authority for such purposes. 



An instance of the extent to which these deficiencies of legislative powers 

 prevail, even in towns which have long been the resort of the wealthy and 

 luxurious classes, is presented in the city of Bath. We there find that — 



"The commissioners for the outpart of the parish of Walcot have power, 

 under a local Act, to order the construction of new sewers and the alteration 

 and reparation of old ones when they see occasion : their power extends over 

 ai>out a fourth or fifth of the city. There is no such power vested in any 

 body for the remainder of the city." 



In the city of Gloucester, although there are three Acts of Parliament in 

 force for the local government of that city, none of them apply to the sewer- 

 age or drainage, which is in a most neglected state. 



To remedy evils of such magnitude and so extensively prevalent, we are of 

 opinion — That new legislative measures, applicable to all towns and populous 

 districts, are required, for the introduction and maintenance — not only of an 

 efficient and economical system of house drainage and sewerage, paving and 

 cleansing, in all towns and populous districts, but also for providing ample 

 supplies of water for public and private purposes, and for the adoption of 

 other means for promoting and securing the health and comfort of the in- 

 habitants. 



New Surveys required. 



The first and most important step in providing for the efficient and econo- 

 mical execution of any plan of drainage, is the preparation of an accurate 

 general survey, upon a large scale, of the area which it is proposed to drain. 

 This view is supported by a large mass of valuable and important testimonv, 

 proving it to be the necessary preliminary to any such work. The extent of 

 country to be comprised within the jurisdiction of any local authority, should 

 be the entire natural area for drainage. At present no such plans or surveys 

 are accessible to budders or others engaged in works requiring a knowledge 

 of the level of the adjacent lands. Hence serious losses have been entailed 

 on the public by the construction of sewers and drains at improper levels, 

 and of a capacity insufficient for the probable wants of a future population ; 

 and houses have been placed in situations regardless of the means of drain- 

 age. Great loss and inconvenience from this cause have very generally oc- 

 curred, and even very lately it has become necessary to enlarge and deepen 

 some of the sewers recently put in. The prevailing want of information 

 among the surveyors and other officers having the charge of the drainage of 

 towns, regarding the levels of the sewers, and frequently even the entire 

 ignorance of their existence, may be traced to the absence of any proper sur- 

 vey. At Bristol the first attempt to form a complete map of the sewers was 

 commenced during the inquiry of the visiting commissioners, and in the town 

 of Preston it was a work of several weeks to open the streets in order to as- 

 certain the lines and the depths of the sewers. In some large towns as Wigan, 

 Rochdale, and Bolton, there is not the slightest knowledge of the sewers. 



The benefit of an authorized survey has already been demonstrated in de- 

 vising a plan for supplying the city of Paris with water. It is manifest that 

 no works can be executed on a system and with a proper attention to scien- 

 tific arrangement, unless they are based upon a general survey, comprehend- 

 ing such levels as above described. Builders of all classes have borne evi- 

 dence of the great value of such a survey. The importance and the necesity 

 of such surveys for the efficient execution of the usual works of improvement 

 in towns is not confined to drainage. It extends to building, laying out and 

 leveling streets, and laying down gas and water-pipes. At present, such sur- 

 veys as exist having been generally executed under the direction of indepen- 

 dent sets of surveyors and workmen, it necessarily happens that a survey 

 made for the one purpose is either inapplicable for another, within the same 

 district, or that the private interests of parties limit the use of it to those at 

 whose instance it was made. 



Ordnance Survey for sanatory purposes. 

 In those parts of the northern counties of England, where the Ordnance 

 survey is still in progress, there appears to be an opportunity of obtaining 

 surveys for sanatory purposes, executed by public officers under a system of 

 control checks, calculated to ensure a degree of accuracy, which it is very 

 difficult to attain in any other manner, and which will acquire for this work 

 a permanent authenticity and confidence. We are more anxious to recom- 

 mend that the services of these officers should be made available for such 

 purposes in those districts, where the surveys for the Ordnance map are not 

 yet completed, as, we believe, that independently of their accuracy, the work 

 could be executed by them at a comparatively trifling cost, provided the aA 

 ditious to the plans of towns, necessary for sanatory purposes, be made while 

 the surveys for the Ordnance map are in progress. 



We therefore recommend, that before the adoption of any general measure 

 for drainage a plan and survey upon a proper scale, including all necessary 

 details, be obtained, and submitted for approval to a competent authority. 



Extension of Jurisdiction of Local Commissioners. 



In the course of our investigations in the country, frequent instances have 

 been brought under our notice of the difficulties arising to a complete system 

 of drainage by the impediments that exist, whether natural or artificial, be- 

 yond the present limits of the jurisdiction of the local authority. No means 

 are at present provided for the gradual enlargement of the jurisdiction simul- 

 taneously with the extension and the increasing wants of the newly-built dis- 

 tricts of towns. 



Instances in Bath and the Manufacturing Towns. 



It is shown on the examination of the drainage of Bath, that the 

 only authority having powers for the construction of new or the reparation 

 of old sewers, was constituted was a local Act, authorizing the appointment 

 of commissioners, whose powers were restricted to the parish of Walcot, 

 containing about one-fourth or one-fifth of the whole population. 



Tottenham, which has a population of 9,000 inhabitants, will serve as a 

 comparatively simple example of another large class of cases, where an in- 

 sufficiency in the area included in the jurisdiction for drainage operates as a 

 barrier almost insuperable to the execution of effectual works by the most 

 competent officers. 



Liverpool is surrounded with undrained tracts of land, over which the 

 suburbs, with new habitations for the working classes, are in the course of 

 extension ; and new houses are being built beside stagnant pools beyond the 

 jurisdiction of the town drainage. The interior of the proper area of drain- 

 age comprising the town itself is split into two districts, and those districts 

 are placed under divided a»d imperfect authorities, so clashing with each 

 other as to render systematic drainage impracticable. 



Much of the proper drainage district, within which the town of Manches- 

 ter is situated, consists principally of clay, wet and overrun with rushes, and 

 of partially drained land. The chairman of the Committee of Sewers in 

 Manchester complained that the proper drainage and improvement of the 

 worst district in that town, inhabited by the poorest population, is prevented 

 by the want of authority over the dams thrown across the river Medlock, 

 which, in consequence of these dams, at times overflows the lower districts. 



It was found that one source of the insalubrity of the town of Bradford, 

 which is situated in a valley between two hills, was traced to the emanations 

 arising from the natural watercourse running between the hills, now dammed 

 up for mill-power, and made the receptacle for all the drainage of the houses. 



The escape of gas from the source was stated to be at times so considerable 

 as to discolour silver in the habitations or workshops near its banks. Over 

 this outfall there was no proper authority possessed or exercised for the 

 public protection. 



The outfall of the surplus water of the drainage of Halifax was found to 

 to be similarly dammed up. 



The inspection of Leeds, showed (as had been previously stated by Cap- 

 tain Vetch, the engineer called in by the local authorities to examine and 

 report on the means of improving the health of that town) that the river 

 Aire, which would in its natural state have had a strong and regular current, 

 had been dammed up in several places for mill power, and for the purposes 

 of an important water communication. These dams thus act as a series of 

 cacch-pits for the sewage of a population of 120,000 persons. In this case, 

 also, the authorities having control over the town draiuage, even if they had 

 been so constituted as to have been competent to e.xecute or maintain sys- 



