118 REPORT 18G4. 



are the source of pestilence, and that it should he removed at an;^ cost. The 

 following considerations may perhaps serve to correct erroneous views on this 

 subject: — 



1. Atmospheric Air, strongly impregnated with Odour of various kinds, is not 

 necessarily injurious to Health.— This is shown, 1st, in various parts of the world 

 where odorous flowers are largely cultivated for the manufactm-e of perfiuues. 

 Strangers, indeed, often complain of headaches in such districts, but anything like 

 epidemic diseases are unknown. 2. At Paris there is an establishment atMont- 

 faucon for converting ordure into a dry mass by simple evaporation. It is then 

 called 2}oudrette, and sold for agricultural piu-poses. The smell to visitors is at 

 first almost intolerable ; but the inhabitants of the neighbourhood are uncon- 

 scious of it, and it occasions no disease. 3. The state of the Thames, in 1858, 

 was loudly complained of in consequence of its putrid odour ; but no disease was 

 caused by it. 4. The Craigiutiuny meadows, near Edinburgh, have for 200 years 

 been rendered fertile by causing the drainage of the city to flow over them. _ The 

 odour is often very bad, but they occasion no uuhealthiness. 6. The drains in 

 Naples run down to the sea, having large slits in them opening into the streets ; 

 and the beautiful bay is rendered foul, close to the shore, with the di-ainage of the 

 city. This, combined with the sulphuretted hydrogen given off from the volcanic 

 soil, renders the atmosphere so unpleasant, that the rents of the dwellings, unlike 

 what exists in other cities, augment as the apartments ascend in the stair. The 

 latrines in the public hospitals also exhale the most foetid anunoniacal gases. Not- 

 withstanding, neither in the city nor in the hospitals is fever, and especially 

 tj'phoid fever, so common as in other cities of the same size. 6. Drs. Livingstone 

 and Kirk informed me, that in Africa the smell of the mangTove-swamps was 

 often intolerable, but never productive of disease. 



2. Atmospheric Air, j'roductive of the most dangerous Epidemics, may he quite 

 Inodorous.— This has been proved in various parts of the world, as in the marshes 

 of Essex and Lincolnshire, the low grounds of Holland, the Campagna of Rome, 

 the Delta of the Ganges, the swamps of Louisiania, the Guinea coast, Jamaica, 

 and many other places. It has never been known that those who catch inter- 

 mittent, remittent, or continued fevers, on visiting such localities, have connected 

 the morbific causes with peculiar smells. It follows that — 



3. TJiere is no necessary Connexion between Smells and deletei-ious Gases. — Some 

 of these have smells, such as sulphuretted hydrogen, whilst others are inodorous, 

 such as carbonic-acid gas. Now it is to be observed, that what makes these and 

 other gases injm-ious is their being so concentrated as to exclude atmospheric air, 

 or their being pent up in confined places, from which they escape in injurious 

 quantity. Hence why workmen going down into pits expire, for the same reason 

 that dogs do in the Grotto del Cano. It has been asserted, however, that smells, 

 though not injurious in themselves, give indications of danger. One chemist has 

 maintained that duiiug putrefaction the smell was given off first, and the noxious 

 vapoiu- afterwards, whilst another declared that the smeU was given oft' last, and 

 was the proof that all danger had ceased. The first likened smell to the tail of the 

 lion, which, when seen, gave evidence that the claws and teeth were not far oft"; 

 while the second, continuing tlie simile, declared that a sight of the tail was the 

 best evidence that danger was departing. I do not believe that smells, as smells, 

 are injiu-ious to health, nor are they a nuisance to those who live among them ; 

 yet one of the great dilficulties in making the sewerage of towns useful in agricul- 

 ture has arisen from exaggerated notions as to the danger of smells, and the 

 necessity of deodorization. 



4. Fresh Sewerage entering into running Streams is not dangerous to Health. — 

 This is shown, 1st, by the state of the Thames in 1858 ; 2nd, by the condition 

 of the water of Leith, which has been proved by the statistics of Dr. Littlejohn, 

 officer of health for the city of Edinburgh, to be a more healthy district than others 

 in proportion to its population, and by Dr. Miller to be equal, in point of health 

 and as regards death-rates, to the best parts of the town ; 3rd, it is not destructive 

 to the fish, for, according to Dr. Elliot of Carlisle, the sabnon have increased in 

 size and weight since the di-ainage of that city was conducted into the Eden, 

 while it is shrewdly suspected that the famed whitebait of Greenwich and Black- 



