Water closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Saniatry Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton.

  • Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Water closets versus privies, practically considered in reference to Manchester and Salford : being the substance of a paper read before the Manchester and Salford Saniatry Association, January 29, 1869 / by John Newton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/14 (page 5)
    courts and blind alleys where the winds of Heaven cannot possibly reach them. A close, fetid atmosphere, in consequence, surrounds them, and so offensive is this that the cottage windows overlooking them are never opened, and the back-doors as seldom as circumstances will permit. There are nearly 70,000 dwellings in Manchester, more than 50,000 of which are cottages at, and und§r, 4s. per week rental. The bye-laws of the Manchester Corporation require a space of less than eight square yards left open as a yard in connection with each new house, and the Salford Corporation require the same; but a very large proportion of the old houses in both the City and Borough have yards very little larger than the ashpits themselvss. ■ The effect of this state of things upon the health of the community must necessarily be prejudicial. It is all but universally admitted that dirt and disease go hand-in-hand, and the high death-rate in towns, as compared with country districts, is mainly due to the existence of a stagnant atmosphere, ^polluted hy the pestilential emanations from foecal matter retained in the ashpits. The periodical reports of the Eegistrar-General prove this. In the Borough of Preston I noted, for several years, the varying rates of mortality which prevailed. In the close and densely populated localities the d.eath- rate ranged from 35 to 40 per thousand, whereas, in the outskirts and more open parts, inhabited by people of the same class, the ratio was little over 30 per thousand, the average of the entire Borough being 29 per thousand. The death-rate in Salford between 1851 and 1861 was 29 per thousand; in Pendleton, 21; and in Broughton, 14. It must be admitted, in this case, that the comparison is not a legitimate one, the social position of the inhabitants being dissimilar; the superior attention and medical skill which the wealthy are able to procure, undoubtedly diminish the chances of attack and the fatality of disease where it is developed. The elaborate returns prepared annually by Mr. Pickering are better evidence, and show clearly a much higher death-rate in closely built parts of the Borough