A sanitary enquiry into the probable causes of yearly epidemics in England, as observed at Leicester / Richard Weaver.

  • Weaver, Richard.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sanitary enquiry into the probable causes of yearly epidemics in England, as observed at Leicester / Richard Weaver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    of the brooks before montioncd, but of which, however, we have no proof —il had occurred in them long before becoming serious in the town. And so, by the agency of water, the aetive principle of the complaint and the germs had every opportunity of getting disseminated throughout the population, and in every direction. Likewise would the sewer gases spread the disease and its germs to all parts of the town, from the emana- tions of infected persons passing into the sewers. The inhabitants being rendered more susceptible to the complaint from consuming the impurities contained in the water, and we have fairly conclusive proof that such was so in a few cases enquired into. The autumn rains also assist in creating an intensified epidemic, by setting free and displacing large volumes of sewage gas. Advertence having just been made to the sewer gases being likewise concerned in disseminating and intensifying zymotic disease, it is perhaps necessary to refer to the mode of action. In the first place it is as well to - point out the system of drainage adopted in Leicester, so that our remarks may be rendered as clear as practicable to those who may be unaquainted with this somewhat intricate subject. It is now about eighteen years since the deep sewers were constructed on a very constricted scale, and at depths below the street surface of from six or eight to twelve or fifteen feet, varying with the localities and contour of the ground. These sewers, with their tributary branches and drains, commencing at all parts of the town and suburbs gradually converge to one point, joining at a distance of a mile or so from the central parts of the town on a piece of ground known as the meadow, and adjacent to the sluggish river Soar. The sewage having gravitated from every district now passes in a body through a main trunk sewer under the river, and into what are well known as the Leicester Sewage Works, where some years ago Avere manufactured the celebrated Leicester Brides—move of this presently. The drainage of the town prior to the new works being carried out consisted of Hat shallow drains, which emptied their contents generally into the river, canal, or other water courses, and likewise of a considerable number of privy cesspits, many of which latter yet remain to the indelible disgrace of the authorities j and when these are emptied during the night or early morning into huge lum- bering open wagons, the effluvia spreads with telling force in every direc- tion, rendering the air not only loathsome and disgusting, but positively dangerous to be breathed. The risk is not confined to the locality of each cesspit emptied, but is incurred wherever the wagon goes on its journey through the town, and the einolls arc very perceptible long after its passage