1867.] Manchester : its Sanitary and Social State. 201 



To what is this excessive mortality due? Not certainly to 

 natural causes. The climate is equal to that of any north-western 

 town. There is a good deal of rain, but this washes the streets, 

 flushes the sewers, and sinks rapidly into the subsoil, which is 

 chiefly sand or gravel, or new red sandstone. Although some 

 portions of the surface are flat, there is sufficient elevation to allow 

 of drainage. 



Manchester is also plentifully supplied with water. It stands 

 at the junction, with the Irwell, of the Irk and Medlock, and there 

 are several minor streams which run either into one of these or 

 direct into the Irwell. There is also an abundance of springs. 

 But the rivers and brooks have for many years been mere sewers, 

 and the spring- water, contaminated as it is, by a cause presently 

 to be referred to, with putrescent organic matter, has long since 

 ceased to be fit for use. 



Early in the century some waterworks were established in this 

 immediate neighbourhood, but, with the increase of population, the 

 supply thus furnished soon fell short of the demand, and twenty 

 years since Manchester was, in respect of its supplies of pure water, 

 probably in as deplorable a condition as any town in Europe. In 

 this emergency, the Corporation, under the able guidance of their 

 engineer, Mr. Bateman, projected, and at great expense carried to 

 completion, an extensive system of artificial lakes, to be filled by 

 the rain-water flowing from many square miles of heathy surface 

 on the hills dividing Lancashire from Derbyshire and Yorkshire. 

 To the abundant supply of pure water thus furnished must, 

 doubtless, be ascribed the almost total immunity of Manchester 

 from the cholera in its two last visitations, as compared with the 

 extreme prevalence and fatality of the disease in 1832 and 1849. 

 For this magnificent boon, which has made Manchester the envy of 

 every other town in England, the Corporation deserved our 

 warmest thanks. Unfortunately, in carrying out the scheme, they 

 seem to have exhausted all their sanitary zeal and energy, and have 

 been content to live on the credit thus acquired. But the fund 

 of reputation, although large, was not inexhaustible. It is well- 

 nigh, if not altogether, exhausted, and if the municipal authorities 

 wish to regain the position they once held in the estimation of their 

 fellow-citizens and of the public at large, they must arouse them- 

 selves to renewed, and even more gigantic, exertions. 



If, in spite of the possession of such natural and acquired 

 sanitary advantages, the unhealthiness of Manchester is so great, 

 there must be some forces at work to counteract them. What 

 those are will now be shown. It will be proved that the Corporation 

 have done and are doing their utmost to neutralize the benefits 

 conferred upon us by their magnificent waterworks. They have 

 given us pure water, but have denied us pure air. 



