154 
Sanitary Effects of Land Draining. 
and a case of typhus, I believe, has not been known along the borders 
of the marshes for these last three or four years. Some years back, a 
great portion of the parishes adjoining these marshes was under water 
from the end of autumn to the early part of the following spring ; then, 
agues and fevers of all characters prevailed to a very great extent. 
Although the malaria does not produce diseases of any decided cliarader, 
yet, during a wet spring or autumn, there are always cases of inflamma- 
tion of the lungs or bowels, and rheumatism, both in acute and chronic 
forms. The houses in general are good, well drained and well venti- 
lated, having one or two sitting-rooms, as many bed-rooms, sometimes 
more, scullery, &c., and convenient receptacles for refuse and fuel. The 
cottages generally are extremely cleanly ; of course there must be some 
exceptions, where the occupiers would not be clean and careful under 
any circumstances." 
Mr. Spurgin, the medical officer of the Dunmow union, 
states, — 
" In this district great attention is paid to the cultivation of land 
under drainage being much attended to, on which account partly ■ft-e are 
not exposed to malaria, neither does ague prevail to any extent. A few 
cases have occurred, and when they have, it has been for the most part 
in individuals whose systems have been impaired by irregular habits, 
and consequently the more readily affected by external impressions, as 
atmospheric vicissitudes." 
Mr. D. R. M'Nab, the medical officer of the Epping union, 
states that — 
" The health of the inhabitants of these two parishes is on the whole 
highly satisfactory, as will appear by this return ; but I would observe 
that the sanitary condition of two localities would be greatly improved 
by a little attention on the part of the public surveyors and others to the 
drains and ditches immediately abutting on the dwellings of the poor 
inhabitants. I refer more especially to that part of Epping which is 
denominated the Back-street, and the greater part of which is in the 
parish of Coopersalle. In very wet weather the drains and ditches are 
flooded ; in very dry, on the contrary, they are, by the evaporation of the 
fluids, rendered very offensive, and thus ahnost all our cases of malignant 
fever are situated amongst those dwellings ; if the neighbourhood had 
been crowded with inhabitants the mischief would have been much 
greater ; and even as it now is, it has been the cause of much fatality 
among the able-bodied men and women. The same observations are 
applicable to Duck-lane in the parish of Weald, and also at the GuUett, 
but in the latter case it is principally owing to the carelessness and filth 
of one or two families, who have thrown all sorts of excrementitious 
substances around their dwellings, and in the course of putrefaction it 
has occasionally become pestiferous. 
" I may also venture to add the following observation, after twenty-six 
years' practice in this neighbourhood, that I have scarcely ever had a 
case of typhus fever in a malignant form without discovering some stag- 
nant drain or overcharged cesspool, or some other manifest cause of 
malaria in the immediate residence of the patient." 
