Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the fatality from "croup", and other throat affections, in the Horwich regestration sub-district / [John Spear].

  • Spear, John.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the fatality from "croup", and other throat affections, in the Horwich regestration sub-district / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    o Sewerage, Drainage, emd Excrement Disposal.—The main sewers, of a com¬ plete system of sewerage for the town itself, have now for some months been constructed. They are partly of brick and partly of pipes ; are said to have a good gradient and are ventilated by open surface gratings. Large outfall tanks have been built some mile and a half from the town; and here, by the admixture of a solution of lime, it is intended that the sewage shall undergo a rough process of precipitation preparatory to its discharge into a neigh¬ bouring stream. The main sewers of this system and the outfall works were completed in October last; private drains along the highways, sometimes it would appear the old imperfect stone drains, have been connected. As regards, however, the private cross streets, these are still for the most part unprovided with the necessary tributary sewers, and sewage is allowed to find its way into foul open gutters which intersect and still further disfigure the miry open spaces. It is anticipated that the sewers in question will be used for slop water and liquid sewage only. For excrement disposal privy-middens are in universal use ; and even in the newer property these receptacles are so constructed as to present all the chief faults of the old-fashioned middenstead. They are of large size (about 8 feet by 4 feet), sunk some 3 feet below the level of the ground, and of porous material. Excavated in a damp soil they are not unfrequently flooded to overflowing with surface water, and where this is not the case their contents are habitually wet. They are emptied at irregular intervals by contractors in the service of the Authority. The solid contents are thrown on to the bare surface of the back lanes to await the arrival of the scavengers’ carts, while the liquid remains in or about the midden¬ stead. The people generally complain much of this state of things, saying that they are prevented from opening their back doors and windows by the foul odours. One woman, living in Autumn Street, quite a new street, but one that has already suffered much from preventable sickness, attributed her indisposition, from which she was just recovering, to the excessively offensive condition, of the back premises of the dwelling, and these I found on inspec¬ tion were partially flooded by liquid oozing from a neighbour’s midden¬ stead.'5 The dangers to which the inhabitants of the newer localities are exposed in this connexion might have been avoided had the Authority paid the least attention to the enforcement of their own byelaws, for by the latter (confirmed by the Local Government Board in July 1886) a proper and safe method of privy construction is duly prescribed. So little, however, do the Authority recognise this that in order to obviate, as it is supposed, the intoler¬ able nuisance of a flooded middenstead, the futile and long since discredited plan of draining that receptacle by a drain communication with the common sewer has of late been proposed, and this although the plan is expressly forbidden by their own byelaws.f The house accommodation of the district is of two classes, the old and the modern. Of the latter the cottages have always through ventilation, and the bedrooms are either two or three in number. The rooms are, however, for the most part very small, and one of the bedrooms is generally unprovided * Amongst the deaths registered as occurring in this street in 1888 (during the first part of which only a portion was, I understand, occupied), and in the first quarter of 1889, are the follow¬ ing:—One from diphtheria, one from “croup,” one from typhoid fever, one from tubercular meningitis, and one from pneumonia. “j- If the Horwich Sanitary Authority would inquire into the experience of neighbouring towns in this matter they would find that the only available remedy for the danger and nuisance con¬ nected with the old privy-midden is the abolition of that form of closet, and failing a proper water carriage system or proper dry-earth closet arrangements, the substitution of some form of privy that will combine the following requisites :—Small size, necessitating frequent emptying; situation and construction that will obviate the risk of soakage and absorption of foul matter. The experience of the neighbouring town of St. Helen’s may be referred to for example. There, following an inquiry by the Board in 1882, as to the continued prevalence of typhoid fever, the Authority decided to abandon the system of piivy-midderis—a system upon the improvement of which exactly the same futile attempts as are now being made at Horwich had previously been wasted—and to introduce the pail system. Now 3.255 pails or tubs are in use in that town. The Medical Officer of Health reports that the change “ has wrought wonders in its sanitary condition,” and that owners of property (who at first opposed it by every means in their power), and occupiers alike, welcome it as one that is much to their interest. o 58737. A 3