hesitate to commit themselves to its principles, so large in their
application; selfish men may shrink from the labour of change, which its
recognition must entail; wicked men may turn indifferently from
considering that which concerns the health and happiness of millions of
their fellow-creatures. To such men an appeal would indeed be useless.
But, to the Corporation of the City of London--whether as assembled in
its entire Parliament, or as represented within the confines of this
Court--to the Corporation which, on so many occasions, has attained
patriotic ends by great expenditure and sacrifice; to men earnest,
strong-minded, and practical, having much consideration for their
fellow-creatures, and having little consideration for personal toil or
municipal expense, so only that they may fulfil a great Christian duty,
and may confirm the gratitude with which history records their frequent
services to our kind;--to such a Corporation, and to such men, the
Country looks for the perfection of a sanitary scheme which shall serve
as model and example to other municipal bodies undertaking the same
responsibility; and to such a Corporation and to such men do I,
likewise, your Officer of Health, respectfully and confidently address a
well-founded appeal.
I have the honour,
&c., &c.
FURTHER REMARKS ON WATER-SUPPLY.
ADDRESSED TO THE HEALTH-COMMITTEE OF THE HON. THE COMMISSIONERS OF
SEWERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON, PURSUANT TO A REFERENCE--
“_What would be a sufficient supply of water to the houses and
premises within the City, and the best principle upon which to effect
such supply?_”
_February 21, 1850._
GENTLEMEN,
Such further observations on the subject of ‘Water-Supply to the City’
as you have desired me to lay before you, I have now the honor to
submit, in as condensed a form as possible.
* * * * *
First, I may remind you, that in my report of last November, which still
remains under your consideration, I stated the following ‘as the chief
conditions in respect of Water-Supply, which peremptorily require to be
fulfilled.
‘1. That every house should be separately supplied with water; and that,
where the house is a lodging-house, or where the several floors are let
as separate tenements, the supply of water should extend to each
inhabited floor.
‘2. That every privy should have a supply of water, applicable as often
as it may be required, and sufficient in volume to effect at each
application a thorough flushing and purification of the discharge-pipe
of the privy.
‘3. That in every court, at the point remotest from the sewer-grating,
there should be a stand-cock for the cleansing of the court; and
‘4. That at all these points there should always and uninterruptedly be
a sufficiency of water to fulfil all reasonable requirements of the
population.’
In re-organising the system of water-supply there are some other
purposes, of a more public nature than these, which would likewise claim
your attention: such as (1) an improved arrangement for meeting all
accidents and emergencies of fire; (2) an efficient distribution of
water to all common urinals and privies; (3) a sufficiency of supply for
any public baths and wash-houses, which may be hereafter erected; and
(4) an ample surplus to be at the disposal of the Commission for the
cleansing of streets and sewers.
* * * * *
In order that those domestic purposes, which I first enumerated, should
be adequately fulfilled, the supply of water ought, practically
speaking, to be without limit to any individual consumer. It is the
tendency of the system of constant supply, and constitutes a
distinguishing advantage of that system, that it fulfils this important
condition without any increase, or perhaps rather with a diminution, of
the total draught of water for a large population.
The average of requirement (estimated from the consumption of large
communities) would probably be about 12 gallons per person per diem;
making an amount, for the total population of the City, of about 1½
million gallons per diem. Assuming this estimate to be correct, a point
which I would beg you to observe is the following: that, although there
might be very little fluctuation in the _total quantity consumed_, and
although it might remain constant at the figure I have given, yet in the
items of individual consumption, making up this gross amount, there
would be almost infinite varieties. One family would habitually consume
twice as much water as another family of the same size: one family would
consume six gallons per person on five days of the week, and would
require all its remaining quota on the other two days; and so forth.
These differences and caprices of individual requirement do not sensibly
affect the total quantity consumed in a given week by a population of
130,000 persons; one consuming more, another less, the first
counterbalances the last in forming the materials for a fair personal
average; and a source of supply calculated from such an average for a
large population would, practically speaking, be unlimited to each
individual consumer, provided only that it were so distributed, that
each consumer could draw from the common stock at his own time and
according to his own necessity. This advantage is obviously lost under
the present system of intermittent supply, which compels a larger total
distribution than would else be requisite, entails the expensive and
unwholesome necessity for storage, and yet is notoriously fraught with
the inconveniences of a restricted source, or a defective supply.
I have no sufficient data for judging with precision what quantity of
water might be required to fulfil all those public purposes of
cleanliness and of protection from fire, to which I have adverted. The
supply would require to be _practically_ inexhaustible; but the
consumption, on an average of the four seasons, would probably lie
considerably within half a million of gallons per diem.
When the distribution of water is brought into its proper relations with
the drainage of the City--that is, when the arrangements of domestic
drainage are completed, in conformity with the intentions of the Act of
Parliament, and when all the water, distributed for private consumption,
is made to traverse and to cleanse all the channels of house-drainage,
it is probable that a smaller quantity of water than is now consumed
will suffice for the flushing of sewers, and for other so-called
sanitary purposes.
The quantity at present supplied to the City by its two Water-Companies
is perhaps much in excess of the two millions of gallons per diem, which
I have estimated as a sufficiency for our population; but the
distribution is so unequal, and the waste of the intermittent system so
incalculably great, that the effect produced on the population is, to a
very great extent, that of scarcity.
* * * * *
With regard to the _principle of supply_ on which I have been desired to
report, it seems certain to my mind, from such evidence as I can collect
on the subject, that the system of continuous supply at high-pressure
promises advantages which can never be realized under the present system
of intermittent supply. There are many matters connected with the
comparison of these two systems, which lie beyond my sphere of
professional observation, and on which I would not be bold enough to
offer any opinion to your Committee. The sanitary points, on which alone
I would venture to insist, as benefits in the system of continuous
supply, are--first, the practical inexhaustibility of the source, and
secondly, the absence of necessity for storage. If these benefits are
attainable, and especially if (as alleged) they can be obtained at a
material economy of expenditure, as compared with the present system,
there can be little doubt as to which should obtain the preference.
If your Committee should wish, it would be easy to prepare for your
examination a digested summary of such scientific evidence as has been
given on these points: or it might be expedient, if such a course would
be more satisfactory to you, that some person in your confidence should
undertake to visit and inspect one or more of the towns where the
system of continuous supply is in operation, and where direct
information can be gathered on the very important particulars of its
practical efficiency and success. But, at all events, whether your
Committee should wish or should not wish this personal investigation to
be undertaken, I would suggest, that it might be satisfactory to you and
serviceable to the inquiry in which you are engaged, if you would
procure a report from some eminent hydraulic engineer, practically
conversant with the system of continuous supply, who might furnish you
with conclusive testimony as to the admissibility of this system within
the City, and as to the advantages and disadvantages, sanitary and
economical, which might attend its adoption here, as compared with that
which has hitherto prevailed.
It appears to me that at the present time the system of continuous
supply might, provisionally, receive a fair trial in the City, in
respect of some of those poorer habitations, which are now for the first
time about to be supplied with water and drainage. The Water-Companies
would probably not object, if desired by the Commission, to supply a
hundred houses, experimentally, with constant pressure from their mains.
The Commission might select for its experiment some of those courts
about Cripplegate or Bishopsgate, where the drainage, as well as the
water-supply, requires to be constructed anew: some, where there have
hitherto been undrained cesspools, and where the water-supply has been
from a stand-cock. Should this suggestion be found feasible, I would
recommend that the details of its execution should be carried out under
the joint superintendence of your Surveyor and myself, and that we
should afterwards report to you its results, as material for guiding
your decision with regard to the general supply of the City.
Mr. Quick, Engineer to the Southwark Water-Works, in a letter which is
appended to Sir William Clay’s pamphlet, has recently suggested various
arrangements for an uninterrupted supply, and these have no doubt been
under your Surveyor’s consideration. I may add, too, that there are at
present upwards of 40 houses within the City constantly supplied from
the mains of the East London Water-Works; but as these are not houses of
the poorest description, it is possible that they may not constitute so
satisfactory a proof of the feasibility of the constant supply, or so
complete an illustration of the detailed arrangements for its
employment, as could be given by the experimental construction I have
suggested.
While the supply remains, as at present, an interrupted one for the City
generally, I would recommend that the Commission should procure from the
Water-Companies an arrangement for the delivery to occur, under no
circumstances, less than daily; and that Sunday should form no exception
to this arrangement. Many tenants of the Water Companies at present
receive their supply only on alternate days, Sunday counting as a _dies
non_, so that a necessity is entailed in such cases for a three days’
storage of water.
* * * * *
Whether the _quality_ of water supplied to the City by the existing
Companies is such as it ought to be, or whether some purer source of
supply may be found; whether their neglect of filtration,
notwithstanding the important weight of testimony given in its favor, be
not a serious dereliction of their duty to the public; whether the
sanitary interests of the consumers of this first necessary of life can
be properly protected, while at variance with those of the great trading
companies which hold a virtual monopoly of the supply; whether it would
not be an immense boon to the Citizens of London, that the control of
the water-supply should be vested in the same jurisdiction as the
drainage, paving, and sanitary cleansing of the district; are questions
which have forced themselves closely on my attention while considering
the sanitary affairs of the City, and on which I hope shortly to lay
some special observations before this Committee or before the Court.
I defer dwelling on these subjects at present, partly because they were
not mentioned in your Committee’s specific reference; partly because I
think it desirable to wait for the issue of the experiment which I have
suggested with regard to the competing system of supply; and partly
because I have reason to know that at the present moment a very
extensive series of chemical investigations is proceeding under orders
of the Government, with a view to ascertain the purest possible sources
for the water-supply of the metropolis. The results of this inquiry, so
far as they have transpired, appear to me so infinitely important in
their relation to some of the questions just alluded to, that I think it
expedient under the circumstances to wait for such new light as may
accrue to our knowledge from the completion of these researches, before
I touch the chemical division of the subject.
I have, &c. &c.
SECOND ANNUAL REPORT.
TO THE HON. THE COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
_November 26th, 1850._
GENTLEMEN,
In obedience to that clause in your Act of Parliament under which my
office is constituted, and which enjoins on your Officer of Health that
he shall ‘report periodically upon the Sanitary condition of the City,’
I now submit to your Hon. Court my annual statement on this subject.
I. MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
During the fifty-two weeks, dated from September 30th, 1849, to
September 28th, 1850, there died of the population under your charge
2752 persons. The rate of mortality, estimated from these _data_, for a
population[30] of 125,500, would indicate somewhat less than twenty-two
deaths (21·92) out of every thousand living persons.
[30] With the required correction for increase of population, the
death-rate was probably about 21·25 _per_ 1000.
Last year it was my painful duty to record the ravages of pestilence,
then indeed hardly terminated, under the pressure of which our general
death-rate had arisen to the alarming height of thirty in the thousand.
On this present occasion, I have the happier task of laying before you
the evidences of a mortality lessened considerably below its habitual
average; and I rejoice in congratulating your Hon. Court on the
testimony thus borne to the success of your sanitary exertions. For
although, without question, some large share of this striking
improvement may have depended on circumstances beyond our cognizance or
control; although it may in part be but an instance of that tendency to
periodical alternations of activity and repose which we recognise in
disease, as in other operations of nature; although I should be
over-sanguine if I believed, and premature if I stated, that your
sanitary measures during the past twelve months had wrought such a
change in the City as to ensure a continuance of this year’s comparative
healthfulness; yet I may venture without hesitation to assure you, that
the labours of the Commission have been fruitful of real and
demonstrable advantage to the health of the people; that a sensible
diminution has occurred in the physical causes of disease; and that,
from various and disinterested sources, I hear grateful mention of
improvements which you have effected.
In confirmation of this assurance, I may inform your Hon. Court that, in
collecting my materials for the present statement, I solicited from the
Union-Surgeons of the whole City of London certain particulars of
information which they were peculiarly able to furnish; I inquired of
them, namely, whether, during the past year, there had prevailed among
the poorer classes in their several districts more or less than the
ordinary pressure of epidemic, endemic, and infectious disease; and
whether, in case of such difference having been observed, they could
refer it, either for better or worse, to any changes recently wrought
in the physical conditions of their respective neighbourhoods. They have
had the kindness to furnish me with the information requested of them;
and their replies testify with remarkable uniformity, both to the
abatement of disease within their several provinces of practice, and to
the considerable dependence of that improved condition of health on
sanitary works effected under your auspices.
* * * * *
In order to form a correct estimate of the average mortality in any
district, it is indispensable that one’s records should extend over many
years. Thus only is it that fallacies can be avoided which arise from
the alternate pressure and remittance of epidemic disease. The havoc
effected by a periodical visitation of influenza, cholera, or plague,
varies, in like manner as the ordinary death-rate varies, in different
localities; and its variation contributes importantly to fix the
healthiness or unhealthiness of such localities. But obviously, if we
wish for practical purposes to calculate an annual rate of mortality,
and to decide, in respect of any district, what are the chances of life
for its population, we must distribute the peculiar mortality of the
pestilence-period over those years which intervene between visitations
of the pestilence.
Hitherto, in respect of the City of London, I have the record of only
two years; two years differing from one another in the proportion of 30
to 22, and the mean mortality deduced from that biennial period would be
26 per thousand per annum.[31] I am, of course, unable to tell you with
certainty whether that ratio be the true average death-rate of the City;
but I incline to believe that an average calculated from a longer
period, with less abrupt fluctuations, would give a lower figure as the
accurate one.
[31] On account of corrections already adverted to, this mean
death-rate should be reduced, probably to 25.2.
In future years, so long as I may have the honour of reporting to the
Commission, I purpose proceeding, step by step, to the construction of a
cyclical average from the materials which will constantly be increasing;
and I trust that many years may elapse before any approach shall again
be made to the high death-rate with which the cycle commenced.
It may be useful, for the sake of comparison, that I should remind your
Hon. Court of some of the more important differences which prevail
throughout the country, in regard to the local rates of mortality. The
extreme rates recorded in the Registrar-General’s last publication,
relating to the septennial period 1838-44, give 14 per thousand per
annum as the lowest average, and 33½ as the highest average, for a
population male and female in equal proportion. The low average belongs
to a district in Northumberland, numbering 27-28,000 inhabitants; the
high average is assigned to Liverpool. For the whole south-east division
of England (comprising more than a million and a half of inhabitants)
the death-rate is but 19; while in parts of the division it falls very
considerably below this average. I have thrown these and some similar
comparisons into a tabular form, which may perhaps be interesting to
you.[32]
[32] Vide page 84.
Possibly it may occur to you that these comparisons are devoid of
practical application--that it is unreasonable to suppose we can
mitigate our London death-rate to the likeness of a selected country
mortality--that the circumstances of the two populations are essentially
and unalterably dissimilar--that the advantages of the one cannot be
given to the other--that the traditional ‘threescore years and ten’ of
human life are allotted only to rustic existence--that the right of
participating in the higher civilisation of the metropolis, or of
trading in its larger market, is not too dearly purchased by the tax of
half or a third of one’s fair expectation of life.
On general grounds I should not hesitate to combat this objection, and
should feel sure of convincing you of its invalidity. I should argue (as
indeed I have already argued here) that the main conditions which
constitute the unhealthiness of towns are definite, palpable, removable
evils; that dense over-crowding of a population--that intricate
ramification of courts and alleys, excluding light and air--that
defective drainage--that the products of organic decomposition--that
contaminated water and a stinking atmosphere, are distinct causes of
disease and death; that each admits of being definitely estimated in its
numerical proportion to the total mortality which it contributes to
cause; that each is susceptible of abatement or removal, which will at
once be followed by diminution of its alleged effects on the health of
the population. Likewise, I should argue, that if there indeed exist,
attached to a metropolitan residence, some really unavoidable and
necessary disadvantages to life (a point which however I am not prepared
to concede) there are likewise, as respects the poor, some peculiar
advantages to counterbalance those evils; that in urban communities the
operations of charitable relief are largest and least remitting; that
the resources of medicine for curing what cannot be prevented are
likewise readiest and most effective.
On all these general grounds I should be prepared to maintain that a
lowness of mortality which has been attained in any considerable rustic
population, may be attained by an urban population, if only the
removable evils be removed, if only the practicable good be made
practical.
Surely too, above all, I would maintain this possibility in respect of
our capital--the treasury as she is of all means for progress in
civilisation, the stronghold of all applicable knowledge. Let but the
wealth, the science, the energy, and the benevolence of the metropolis
deal with removable causes of death as they have dealt with subjects
infinitely more difficult, infinitely less promising, and certainly of
not greater importance; and few competent persons will doubt that the
mortality of London might speedily be reduced to the level of any
district-mortality yet recorded by the Registrar-General.
There may be those in your Hon. Court who will hesitate to accept for
themselves the firm conviction which I entertain on this subject; or
who, at least, will withhold their assent from the line of argument
which I have advanced. To them, what I have now to state may be more
conclusive than any other consideration: viz., during the year on which
I am reporting, there was one sub-district of the City of London
Union--one comprising from twelve to thirteen thousand inhabitants, in
which (after including a due proportion of deaths which had occurred in
the union-workhouse at Mile-end) the mortality stood only at 15 in the
thousand; one in which, if those extramural deaths had been excluded,
the local death-rate for the year would have been only 13·32.[33]
[33] These figures require some correction for decrease of population
in the sub-district referred to: the death-rate, inclusive of
workhouse mortality, was nearly 16, and exclusive of that mortality,
nearly 14 _per_ thousand.--J. S., 1854.
For an illustration of low and enviable death-rates, I need then no
longer appeal to Northumberland, or to our south-eastern
counties--though, no doubt, their septennial periods of low mortality
are valuable corroborations of any inference which could be drawn from
our more restricted experience;--but I may point to the last year’s
death-rate in the north-west sub-district of the City of London Union as
one of rare excellence, and may content myself with wishing that that
partial rate might become universal for the City, and might be the
permanent expression of its average mortality.
A detailed consideration of our sickness and mortality during the last
year suggests to me a few other remarks, which may, I think, be of
practical utility to your Hon. Court.
First, as regards the ages at which death occurs; the respective
proportions of _timely_ and _untimely_ deaths may, generally speaking,
be inferred from the local death-rates. In general terms, we know a high
death-rate indicates that many die before their time--indicates that a
proportion of the population, more or less considerable, instead of
reaching old age, becomes prematurely blighted and extinguished. In
order to illustrate this subject to you more exactly, I append a table
in which the deaths of the last two years are classified according to
the ages at which they occurred. Of 3763 persons whose deaths are
recorded in my last Report, 1243 died under the age of five years: of
2752 deaths registered in the present year, 1032 belong to the same
early period of life.