Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the city of Norwich, and the county of the same city / by W. Lee, Superintending Inspector.

  • Lee, William, 1774 or 1775-1853.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the city of Norwich, and the county of the same city / by W. Lee, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the health and morals of the same classes, who constitute the greater part of the inhabitants of Norwich. The pavements of the public ways in some parts of the city, and generally in the hamlets, are defective. A very large number of streets are without any pavement, and the court-yards occupied by the poor are paved or unpaved, at the option of the owner. The burial-grounds within the city are in a crowded state, and further interments of the dead in them would be incompatible with the health of the living. The jurisdiction of the Paving Commission is defective, even within its limits, and a large proportion of the population is beyond the reach of the Paving Acts. In some instances several jurisdic- tions conflict with each other; and there is no local authority whatever, at present, capable of dealing effectually with the sani- tary evils of the city and its hamlets, included within the county of Norwich. Nuisances exist that cannot be removed without more extended powers; the surface-cleansing is very defective, and limited in extent ; the sanitary condition of many of the public institutions of the city is very bad ; there are no places of public recreation freely open to all the citizens ; and, as a natural consequence of all the evils 1 have enumerated, there is a great amount of preventible disease and mortality, in a city that ought to be one of the most healthy places in the kingdom. REMEDIES. Public Health Act Beneficial.—The legislature has pro- vided the means of remedying such serious evils as have just been brought under review, by enacting that after due preliminary inquiry, the Corporation of the city, as a Local Board of Health, may be invested with adequate powers. The importance of the preliminary inquiry will, I trust, be manifest from the preceding part of this report, and also because it affords the means of adapt- ing the provisional order for the application of the Act to the peculiar circumstances of the locality. The Public Health Act will enable the Council, as Local Board of Health, to secure for each dwelling-house a proper supply of water, and, if necessary, to require that no house shall be without such a supply ; to lay down a system of efficient drainage, not oniy for the public streets and places, but for the courts, houses, and other buildings of the city and suburbs, so that all offensive refuse can be conveyed away in underground channels; to arrange for the drainage of the suburban lands; to prevent the pollution of the river courses ; to improve the character of the dwellings of the poor, and secure better ventilation of the houses, courts, and public thoroughfares; to regulate, by license and in-