No. XXXVI.C.] APPENDIX. 411 



concealing a death from zymotic disease, or giving knowingly any false 

 information to deceive the Registrar, shall be subject to a penalty of 5 

 for erery offence ? 



It is perfectly plain that a certain member of the Croydon Board was 

 not even aware that a terrible epidemic of typhoid fever was raging in his 

 district. He wrote thus on the 15th of May : " Instead of the farm of 

 Beddington being a dangerous swamp, a pestilential swamp, a pestiferous 

 marsh as some persons have stated, no offensive odour can be detected, 

 and the neighbourhood is not injuriously affected by miasma, neither has 

 the farm been the means of introducing disease and death into the 

 district, as its introduction has been coincident with a less death-rate and 

 a clean bill of health, and in particular no death from fever had occurred 

 during the whole of last year." Now, if any person living in this lament- 

 ably fever-stricken town never heard of the epidemic, how are the public 

 to know that every one of their families was exposed to disease and death ? 

 How urgently is it required that the members of Boards of Health, instead 

 of giving imperfect information to the public through the newspapers and 

 societies, should have the means of knowing the truth that they may not 

 propagate error. 



Ninety-one persons have perished from typhoid at Croydon since this 

 erroneous information has been given to the public. How far might a 

 right knowledge of the facts have saved valuable lives and permanent 

 injury to the constitutions of those who have been attacked by disease ? 

 how far might the injury to property have been averted by persons leaving 

 Croydon or abstaining from taking houses there ? how far might the 

 panic at this terrible epidemic have been prevented ? This it is hardly 

 possible to state. Truth alone can restore confidence ; for, in spite of any 

 amount of newspaper letters to the contrary, Croydon will be regarded 

 justly with suspicion for a long time to come. 



In our consideration of sewage- grounds we should remember that 

 there are two distinct modes of fermentation of excretal matter; one the 

 ainmoniacal, the other the putrid. The ammoniacal fermentation is used 

 by the gardener in his hotbeds, and it produces warmth and a genial 

 atmosphere particularly favourable to the early and perfect growth of all 

 plants. The putrid fermentation is to be noticed in sewage, which causes 

 large leafy vegetation with delayed perfection, and so horticultural flowers 

 have leaf with little or no flower when watered with sewage. Crops grown 

 under sewage irrigation are always late, and consequently of much less 

 value in the market. 



In the present state of our knowledge sewage-grounds should be 

 avoided where practicable, but when they are absolutely necessary, (1) the 

 sewage-ground should be located by a public officer under the Privy 

 Council ; (2) the sewage-ground should appertain to its own district, and 

 on no account be placed in any other parish without leave of the majority 

 of the inhabitants ; (3) irrigation should not be conducted within 200 

 yards of any highway or private property; (4) the sewage should be 

 carried to the grounds in covered ways, (5) and then defecated; (6) the 

 fluid should then be passed through the earth ; (7) in some cases it would 

 pass through the earth to unknown districts, and in others it would pass 

 off as a stream ; (8) it ought not to run over the neighbouring private 

 property, (9) but be retained within 200 yards of adjacent lands ; (10) the 



