First report. : Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis.

  • Great Britain. Metropolitan Sanitary Commission.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report. : Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis. 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.

    100/204 (page 92)
    No. 19. to endeavour to get money. I was directed to see the Commissioners for issuing Exchequer JBcna/j J>reti;, Esq. B'Hs on loan, but I found that they were without the means of assisting us. T have since that been to most of the principal fire offices and life offices to see if 1 could get any money from them, and I think the application was only entertained by one. 1 have since that advertised, the sum named was 50,000/., the Commission, however, only got 8000/. One of your surveyors, Mr. Joseph Gwilt, was asked witli reference to the cleansing a sewer :—Will you state whether the soil taketi from the sewer was carted away, or did the men throw it up upon the side of the sewer upon the banks of the road ? The answer is, They threw it up upon the earth on the banks of the sewers. That has been the invariable practice since I have been surveyor, and it was the practice during the time my father was surveyor; we never cart any away except the soil of sewers crossing public roads. Is that the practice now?—It is pretty much the practice in open sewers which go through pasture land. He is asked :— Are you aware of any practical inconvenience arising from throwing up the soil upon the side of the sewer?— It is doubtless a nuisance to the owners of the land upon which it is thrown in populous neighbourhoods.—There we cart away, but in open, marsh lands and pasture lands we leave it, and there are only two instances we know of in which parties have required us to take it away, and then we did so; but we generally let it lie upon the bank till it becomes of use as manure, and then it goes into the land. In closed sewers and in populous districts you do not leave it but cart it away ?—Yes, we always cart it away in populous places and in ail public roads. As quickly as you can i*—Yes. By sending men and cleansing in the ordinary way immediately ?—Yes. Have you always people at work for that purpose?—Yes. Would it be generally upon the same day that you cart it away?—I should say always on the same day ; the cart is waiting. The 35. 6t/. we pay includes also the finding of a depot. In flushing, do you ever use any artificial mains?—We create a backwater. You use artificial raking?—Yes; always by men going in and raking first of all. Was some of this work done at the time of the cliolera, the cleansing in open sewers ?— There were several sewers done which had never been taken by the Commission^ but which were then taken. The Commissioners felt that they were doing what was right; a subscrip- tion was raised and a great portion of the expense was defrayed by that means. W^as not there a complaint at that time as to those means of cleansing sewers?—Yes. W^as not it the opinion of your Court that the public opinion about its being injurious was erroneous?—Yes, arising in a great measure from the fact, which was ascertained, I believe, by the members of all the Commissions in London, that not one of the men so employed suffered by the cholera. Therefore you think that the public were mistaken ?—As regards the cholera I do; but that . it is a nuisance there can be no doubt. It is offensive to the smell; but it is not the belief of the Commission that it is injurious with respect to engendering disease?—No None of your surveyors or engineers differ in that conclusion ?—They do not seem to do so. How was your Commission created ?—By the Crown. When was the last Commission created?—On the 15th of August, 1840, the 4th year of her present Majesty. j Do you ever have complaints from occupiers of courts and alleys of the want of drainage ? '—We have had one or two which we have attended to, but with very great difficulty. We found the landlord not at all disposed to pay any poriion of the expense. AVe did it with the assistance of the Commissioners of Pavements. We did not feel that we ought to do so; it was doing work which we thought the landlord should do, and we applied to the Com- missioners of Pavements who felt that the place was not in the state of cleanliness it should be, and they contributed to the expense of making the drain. Out of the paving-rate?—Yes. No question has arisen as to the quantity of water in the district, excepting that you are encumbered with too much of it?—Our upland water is too rmich. You have never sought then for any aid in respect of water from any companies ?—No ; we have in different places shiices for letting down water fi'om one level to another. How do you manage with collateral drains?—We throw as much water as we can into the collaterals, but the main lines are our principal object. I hardly know of a complaint with respect to collaterals. If the main lines of sewers are kept clear the others are generally kept clear also. What is the size of the collaterals?—They vary. If the Commissioners can foresee that they can hereafter take them up a longer distance they make them of a larger size, but if it is a cul- de-sac, of course it is determined that the drain shall only be of a small size. I should say that in all our main lines of sewers there are none less than 4 feet 6 by 2 feet 9. The collateral sewers are affected by the main sewers?—Y^es, every tide they are filled; therefore there is the operation of flushing going on. I think unless it is a very high sewer that every one of our sewers is filled with water every tide. Are you aware of the extent to which water-closets are in use in the district?—Very little. Notwithstanding that, during the time the sluices are shut the sewers are filled with water? —Yes. That water you imagine to be water draining from the high ground ?—Yes, and partly from the sewer itself. We have rendered land which you could hardly get upon as hard as possible by sewage. You say that the water comes from the land itself. Is that water influenced at all by the tide?—Ldo not think we find it so much. It may be influenced by it in some small degree.