Report to the local government board on certain means of preventing excrement nuisances in towns and villages / by J. Netten Radcliffe.

  • Radcliffe, J. Netten.
Date:
[1875]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the local government board on certain means of preventing excrement nuisances in towns and villages / by J. Netten Radcliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    and cramped together with l|--inch X §-inch wrought iron angle irons, and On Excremont X ^-inch screwed bolts and nuts jointed neatly with Portland cement, adapted for the accommodation of males, females, and children. llndcl'iire. The seats are made of cast-iron with close-fitting galvanised iron pails ^ — underneath. The whole structure covers an area of 65 superficial feet, ac- ' commodating 59 families, and cost 16/. The objection to this privy arises chiefly from the foul odour continually emitted from the coating of faecal matter on ])ails, which could easily be obviated by substituting a clean, deodorised pail at each removal. [The contents of the pails are merely emptied into the scavengers’ cart without other cleansing.] At the time of my inspection there Avas superabundant evidence in the eentral district, from overfull middensteads and ash-pits, that the opera- tions of the sanitary department and of the scavenging department Avere not in proper accord. The scaA^enging of the middensteads and ash-pits has not kept pace Avith the Avork of the sanitary department in reducing their size, and as a consequence of the less capacity of these receptacles, they fill and overfloAV more rapidly than the scavenging department is prepared to deal Avitli them. This Avant of accord betAveen the two de- partments did not seem to me to rest upon any necessity of the case, but to arise chiefly from the vicious principle upon Avhicli the scavenging of the middensteads and ash-pits is carried out. Theoi'etically the central district of the town is scavenged every alternate night, and in practice the niglitsoil carts traverse it for this purpose. If the scavenging were carried out systematicjdly from street to street, privy to privy, and ash- pit to ash-pit, the present arrangements would suffice, no doubt, to obviate the nuisance from overflowing middensteads and ash-pits which came under my observation. But actually the scavenging is governed by the fulness or not of the middensteads and ash-pits, and this in a given locality is judged by the largest not the smallest. The same practice holds good in the scavenging at longer intervals of other districts of the city. The mode of payment of the scavengers directly fosters this practice, and holds out a premium for imperfect Avork in another important Avay. The scavengers are paid at so much per ton of the filth removed, and it is to their interest to encourage fulness of the receptacles so as to diminish the quantity of ground traversed in collecting the contents.* Another evil of this mode of payment is, as I had occasion to observe, that it affords an inducement to the men to cleanse the receptacles imperfectly, the walls not being scraped and the bottoms carefully swept out. ]*late VIII. gives a draAving of a pail closet in ordinary use for a court or common stair. The pails are galvanised iron cylindrical A^essels, calculated each to serve for 10 families during the intervals of the scavengers’ rounds. These pails, which receive excrement only, ai-e simply emptied into the scavengers’ cart, and are neither scraped nor otherwise cleansed. The Avhole of those I saw Aveie encrusted with filth, and stank offensively, and Dr. Russell, the medical officer of health, has satisfied himself that the excremental matters received in(o them Avhen in this state rapidly decompose. The ash-pits, or more accurately middensteads, attached to these pail- closets also receiA’^e a considerable quantity of exciemental matters fiom chamber-pots, Avhicli are freely used for defecation in the tenements, and of Avhich the contents are not uncommonly retained some time in the house. * “ Under the present system the men work by the ton, and could not under the ni.ditlv sy.stem earn the same amount of wages, as they would require to travel over nmch more ground before they could collect the same quantity of material.”— Obserualiom of the ImpecLor of Cleansing in reference to a q/ //le Medical Of leer of Health on the system of cleansing ash-pits,pans, ^c., 17</i J nly 18/ 3_