Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health

by George E. Waring

"Where instances have been favorable for definite observation, as in broad blocks of buildings, the effects of sanitary improvement have been already manifested to an extent greater than could have been anticipated, and than can be readily credited by those who have not paid attention to the subject.

"In one favorable instance, that of between 600 and 700 persons of the working class in the metropolis, during a period of three years, the average rate of mortality has been reduced to between 13 and 14 in 1000. In another instance, for a shorter period, among 500 persons, the mortality has been reduced as low as even 7 in 1000. The average rate of mortality for the whole metropolis being 23 in 1000.

"In another instance, the abolishing of cess-pools and their replacement by water-closets, together with the abolishing of brick drains and their replacement by impermeable[pg 223] and self-cleansing stone-ware pipes, has been attended with an immediate and extraordinary reduction of mortality. Thus, in Lambeth Square, occupied by a superior class of operatives, in the receipt of high wages, the deaths, which in ordinary times were above the general average, or more than 30 in 1000, had risen to a rate of 55 in 1000. By the abolishing of cess-pools, which were within the houses, and the substitution of water-closets, and with the introduction of tubular, self-cleansing house-drains, the mortality has been reduced to 13 in 1000.

"The reduction of the mortality was effected precisely among the same occupants, without any change in their habits whatever."

"Sewers are less important than the House-Drains and Water-Closets, and if not carrying much water, may become cess-pools. In the case of the Square just referred to, when cess-pools and drains of deposit were removed without any alteration whatever in the adjacent sewers, fevers disappeared from house to house, as these receptacles were filled up, and the water-closet apparatus substituted, merely in consequence of the removal of the decomposing matter from beneath the houses to a distant sewer of deposit or open water course.

"If the mortality were at the same rate as in the model dwellings, or in the improved dwellings in Lambeth Square, the annual deaths for the whole of the metropolis would be 25,000 less, and for the whole of England and Wales 170,000 less than the actual deaths.

"If the reduced rate of mortality in these dwellings should continue, and there appears to be no reason to suppose that it will not, the extension to all towns which have been affected, of the improvements which have been applied in these buildings, would raise the average age at death to about forty-eight instead of twenty-nine, the present average age at death of the inhabitants of towns in all England and Wales."

The branch of the Art of Drainage which relates to the removal of the fecal and other refuse wastes of the population of towns, is quite different from that which has been described in the preceding pages, as applicable to the agricultural and sanitary improvement of lands under cultivation, and of suburban districts. Still, the fact that town and house drainage affords a means for the preservation of valuable manures, justifies its discussion in an agricultural work, and "draining for health" would stop far short of completeness were no attention paid to the removal of the cause of diseases, which are far more fatal than those that originate in an undrained condition of the soil.

The extent to which these diseases, (of which typhoid fever is a type,) are prevented by sanitary drainage, is strikingly shown in the extract which commences this chapter. Since the experience to which this report refers, it has been found that the most fatal epidemics of the lower portions of London originated in the choked condition of the street sewers, whose general character, as well as the plan of improvement adopted are described in the following "Extracts from the Report of the Metropolitan Board of Works," made in 1866.

"The main sewers discharged their whole contents direct into the Thames, the majority of them capable of being emptied only at the time of low water; consequently, as the tide rose, the outlets of the sewers were closed, and the sewage was dammed back, and became stagnant; the sewage and impure waters were also constantly flowing from the higher grounds, in some instances during 18 out of the 24 hours, and thus the thick and heavy substances were deposited, which had to be afterwards removed by the costly process of hand labor. During long continued or copious falls of rain, more particularly when these occurred at the time of high water in the river, the closed outlets not having sufficient storage capacity to receive the increased volume of sewage,[pg 225] the houses and premises in the low lying districts, especially on the south side of the river, became flooded by the sewage rising through the house drains, and so continued until the tide had receded sufficiently to afford a vent for the pent-up waters, when the sewage flowed and deposited itself along the banks of the river, evolving gases of a foul and offensive character.