Report of the Medical Officer of Health of the City of London, upon the New River water, and the church yard of St. Andrew's, Holborn / presented to the Commissioners of Sewers, Tuesday, 11th December, 1855.

  • City of London (England). Commissioners of Sewers.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health of the City of London, upon the New River water, and the church yard of St. Andrew's, Holborn / presented to the Commissioners of Sewers, Tuesday, 11th December, 1855. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    most necessary aliments would keep only a few hours in the neighbouring houses. This proceeds either from the soil being so completely saturated that it cannot absorb or retain any longer the putrescent dissolution, or from the too circum- scribed extent of the ground for the number of dead annually interred. In the second preamble, mention is made of the foetid smells emanating from the vaults of churches, rendering the air insalu- brious, and perhaps occasioning the distressing epidemics that have appeared in the Provinces. As an example of the overcrowded state of our London church-yards, the following is q^uoted by M. Tardieu in his Dictionnaire D'Hygiene Publique, from the Report of Dr. Sutherland: In many church-yards that I have visited, the soil appears to be entirely composed of crushed bones, and of an oily animal mould. I saw a grave dug a day or two ago, in the church-yard in White Cross Street, belonging to the Parish of St. Giles. This grave was six feet in depth, and appeared to be dug in a wall of human bones. The grave-digger, at each stroke of his pickaxe, crushed or scattered over the earth large fragments of bones. Near me were thrown up five skulls, of which four were entire. The bones around me appeared to belong to many different skeletons, and they looked so fresh that it appeared to me that the soft parts had only just become detached. The sexton told me that, not-