Complaint was made that the first portion of water entering certain cisterns in a street and mews at Notting Hill, each time the water was turned on, was of a disgusting character; and this happened at a time when there was an obstruction of the sewer in the mews, the effect being to saturate the ground and flood the surface with sewage and surface drainage. I surmised that the main was defective, and that when the water was turned off the sewage was sucked into the pipe to fill the vacuum, and then forced through the service pipes so soon as the water was turned on. It turned out, so I was informed by the Company, that the defect really existed in a service pipe of one of the houses; the effect, however, was the same, and dangerous nuisances of this kind may occur at any time, or in any locality, under similar circumstances, so long as the intermittent system of water supply is continued. In the present instance several cases of illness were traced to this fouling of the water, and had the sewer contained typhoid excreta, the results might have been lamentable in the extreme, and of the same kind as at Over Darwen, and at Lewes during the recent epidemics of Enteric Fever. As I have remarked in another place, we seem as far off as ever from the constant system, the only gleam of hope in respect of it being that the companies have made, and are making extensive preparations, so as to enable them to supply their districts when called on to do so. They are enabled to give a constant supply even though it should not be required of them by the Metropolitan authority, and they would be gainers by so doing, if the prevention of waste is really of any moment to them, which may be reasonably doubted. The Metropolitan authority is the Metropolitan Board of Works, a body which it is well known are unwilling to execute the authority conferred on them by the Act, strongly disapproving, as they do, of the regulations, the stringency of which they did their utmost, but in vain, to modify.
MORTUARY.
I cannot allow the subject of a mortuary to pass without a brief reference, and an expression of my great regret that the parish is still unprovided with one. As I have stated in former reports, the burials, at the public expense, of poor persons, occupants in life of single rooms, are reckoned by hundreds every year; and I cannot doubt that in a large proportion of these cases the survivors would avail themselves of the privilege of depositing their dead in a public mortuary of suitable construction, and in a suitable locality. Poor persons in somewhat similar circumstances, but above the pauper class, would, in all probability, also use the mortuary. The law provides for the removal of the bodies of those who have died of an infectious disease, viz., on medical certificate and by Justice’s order. Bodies of persons found dead or accidentally killed, and not identified, would be received as a matter of course. A properly-designed mortuary would embrace a room for conducting post-mortem examinations, which are now often made under painful and distressing circumstances, to say nothing of the inconvenience to which the operator is put—and there were 154 such examinations last year by coroner’s order. It should also embrace a suitable Court for the due and proper execution of the coroner’s office.
No progress in this matter has been made since my last report, a conference with a Committee of the Board of Guardians, with a view to the appropriation of a portion of the stone yard at the Dispensary Buildings, Mary Place, Potteries, having proved abortive. I cannot say I regret this result, as I do not consider the site a desirable one. The mortuary should be quite distinct from any association with pauperism, and though privacy of site is desirable, I hold that it should be placed in the most respectable and the most central locality that can be obtained, in order to ensure its being used. I am still of opinion that the
DISINFECTING CHAMBER
should, if possible, be so far associated with the mortuary as to enable one and the same person to have the charge of both establishments. Proceedings in respect of both are alike at a standstill, because we have not been able to procure a site. Fortunately, during a considerable portion of the year there has not been very much need of a chamber, so far as need depends on the prevalence of infectious disease; but I am of opinion that a great amount of good sanitary work might be done with an efficient chamber, if only in purifying by heat the often foul and otherwise offensive bedding and clothing of the poor. Latterly, owing to the increased prevalence of scarlet fever, and also during the latter period of 1874, a good deal of disinfection has been satisfactorily carried out for your Vestry by Messrs. Wellan & Co., of Manchester Mews, Walmer Road, Notting Hill, by chemical agents and heat combined. As to the value of disinfection properly done there can be no doubt and I am not acquainted with a single instance in which clothing, bedding, &c., that has been properly submitted to the process, has been the medium of contagion.
BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES.
No steps were taken during the year to supply the parish with these valuable institutions. I hope, however, that the subject will be taken up again before long, your Vestry having already expressed an opinion favourable to the principle. I have no doubt that in a few years, and at whatever reasonable cost, Baths and Wash-houses will be regarded as indispensable parts of a well-regulated system of sanitary administration.
SEWER VENTILATION.
The subject of sewer ventilation has made little or no progress during the year, and, as usual, numerous complaints have been received of noxious smells emanating from the gullies and ventilators. Each case has been dealt with as far as possible; and in many of the cases charcoal filters have been introduced, with the result of putting a stop to complaints. I am, nevertheless, somewhat sceptical as to the value of this plan, as I cannot divest my own mind of the suspicion that they impede ventilation, and may prove effectual only by preventing the escape of foul air. The subject was brought very prominently before your Vestry during the current year, in consequence of numerous complaints by inhabitants of Elsham-road of bad smells, not only in the roadway, but also in the houses. I made an exhaustive report on the locality, and advised measures for diminishing pressure in the sewers, by opening up blind ends, and so allowing the gas to circulate, or, at least, to escape innocuously into the open air, rather than into the houses. I described the sanitary defects which existed in the houses, and recommended ventilation of the house drains by independent pipes carried from the highest point of the drain to some distance above the parapets of the houses, and I pointed out that this remedy alone would go far to remove the cause of complaint. To what extent the plans have been carried out I have not yet ascertained, but it is certain that a long period had since elapsed without any communication on the subject having been received in my department.