Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary condition and administration of the Rochester urban sanitary 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 sanitary condition and administration of the Rochester urban sanitary district / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Such is the condition of a large proportion of the older cottage property in the town ; and that of the newer property, as regards this matter of excrement disposal, is scarcely more satisfactory. At the village of Borstal, where several rows of dwellings have been erected within the last few years, large cesspools and privy vaults, generally unventilated and always leaky, are sunk in the Chalk often close by the foundations of the houses. I saw houses being built, with excavations of this kind within some 12 feet of the house-walls. In this village of Borstal there have been recurring outbreaks of typhoid fever during the last four years ; during the last two there have been at least seven family invasions; an epidemic of scarlatina occurred in the autumn of 1888, and there have been besides several cases of “ diphtheritic sore throat.” The village is situated on a steep hillside overlooking the Medway ; the houses are, for the most part, new and airy, and the water supply is from the public source. I could find no explanation for the undue prevalence of typhoid fever, but that of the exceedingly unsatisfactory arrangements for sewage disposal; and certain of the cases of sore throat also had occurred in houses where the invasion of cesspool and drain-air was much complained of. Many villa residences have been built in different parts of the district of late years, and for these also cesspools afford the only means of sewage disposal. In these cases the distance of the cesspools from the houses is somewhat greater, and more attention is paid to the ventilation of the drains. That a cesspool, however, should be water-tight is never required. The byelaws of the Authority date back to 1876, or before the model bye¬ laws of the Board were issued. The materials to be used in the construction of drains, cesspools, and the like, the means of ventilation, the situation of cesspools and closets, &c., are to be “ suitable,” but definite regulations in respect of these important matters being wanting the result is as described. Removal of Refuse.—Until June 1888, the emptying of privies and cesspools was left to owners or occupiers. It is said that the supervision exercised by the sanitary officers was sufficient to prevent the actual overflowing on to the surface of sewage matter; but in several cases, as stated, the digging of supplementary cesspools, or the use for this purpose of some disused well, was resorted to with a view of obviating the need for frequency of removal. In September 1887, the Board issued a compulsory Order under section 42 of the Public Health Act, 1875, requiring the Local Authority themselves to undertake or contract for the cleansing of cesspools and privies, and by the end of the following June the Authority had, by entering into contracts, completed their arrangements for compliance with this Order. It cannot be doubted that the change will serve an economical purpose, as the cost to the private owner of emptying a cesspool was excessive; it may be expected too that the temptation to dig supplementary cesspools for the same property will, in large measure, be removed, and that the final disposition of the long stored-up filth will be effected with less difficulty and danger. Further than this no advantage can be looked for ; enormous masses of filth will still be stored just beneath the surface in the immediate vicinity of dwellings; the foundations of the houses will continue to receive the soakage of sewage ; the ground air, which largely enters into the com¬ position of the air of dwellings built on the Chalk, will still be impreg¬ nated with sewage effluvia; and at recurring intervals, which will be the more frequent according to the frequency of the scavenging, a dangerous and offensive disturbance of filth about the doors and windows of dwellings, at times involving the carrying of such filth through those dwellings, will have to be endured. As to this last difficulty, however, there is evidently no more disposition on the part either of the Authority or the contractors, than there was before on the part of owners, to empty these receptacles until their emptying is impera¬ tively called for by threatened overflow. Already, on different occasions, when complaint has been made and the emptying demanded, this has been refused because the cesspools or privy-pits, as the case may be, were “ not sufficiently full.” From June 26th, 1888, to March 12th, 1889, 306 cesspools or privy-pits are reported to have been emptied by the public scavengers; and the amount of matter so removed appears to have averaged some six tons from each of the several premises, and to have ranged from about two to A 2