Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Dewsbury registration district, with special reference to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the district.

  • Thorne, Richard Thorne.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Dewsbury registration district, with special reference to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the district. 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.

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    special objection, they are made very unhealthy by the conditions of filth, due to defective means of drainage and of excrement disposal, by which they are sur- rounded, points which will be referred to more in detail under their respective headings. 3. Water-supply.—For about seven years prior to May 1876 the water-supply for Soot- hill-Nether was delivered from the Dewsbury Waterworks, but at that date a supply was procured from a reservoir belonging to the urban sanitary district of Soothill- Upper. This reservoir is so placed as to convey water by gravitation to the highest part of the district, and it derives its supply from the waterworks of the Halifax Corporation. The present supply is turned off at night, but the mains are stated to be kept fully charged for a much longer period out of each 24 hours than was the case when the supply came from Dewsbury, and in connexion with this point it is interesting to note that the experience of Soothill-Nether coincides with that of many other districts in the circumstance that the amount of water used per house steadily diminishes as the supply increases in constancy. There is no provision for admitting fresh air into the mains during the period of intermission. Out of a total of about 1,050 houses in the district, somewhat under 150 are still dependent on wells some of which are evidently subject to the risk of pollution, on stored rain water, or on pit water, and this is the case even where the water mains pass close to the houses. The number of houses, however, which are supplied from the public mains is steadily increasing. 4. The Means for the Disposal of Excrement and Refuse consists almost exclusively of the midden-privy; there being in addition to this form of closet only about a dozen water- closets in the district. As in other parts of the Dewsbury Registration District, the midden-privies are almost universally so constructed that any proper mingling of the ashes and excreta is impossible; the middens are also unroofed and sunk below the level of the surface, and hence they ensure wetness with consequent rapid decomposition of contents and saturation of the soil near the foundations of houses, and at times near wells. In some instances the nuisance and the danger to health resulting from these structures is very considerable, especially where they are situated in close proximity to houses and to windows and to highways. The Authority still sanctions as a minimum provision of closets one midden-privy to four houses, but even this scanty provision is not universal. As in all districts where the scavenging is not undertaken by the Authority, the midden-privies are so constructed as to store up large accumulations of filth and refuse. On the 16th of April 1873 the Authority, in addressing the Local Government Board, wrote as follows : “ With a view to improving the sanitary state of the district “ the Board are about to undertake the removal of nuisances themselves.” The only steps however which have been taken in the direction of a public system of scavenging consist in the provision by the Authority of a cart and a horse, which they are willing to lend to such householders as consent to find the necessary labour. In emptying the middens an effort is made to separate that portion of the contents which contains most excreta from the remainder, and this latter portion is at times used for the purpose of filling in a quarry. Building operations have already extended close up to the quarry, and there appear strong grounds for believing that where the surface of the quarry has been suffi- ciently raised the foundations of houses will, unless the Authority takes steps to prevent it, be laid in this material. 5. Means of Sewerage and Drainage.—Soothill-Nether stands in urgent need of a proper system of sewerage and drainage. Nearly all sewers are square stone channels either unventilated or most imperfectly ventilated. The private drains are in many instances of equally imperfect construction, and many of them have no means of ventilation, foul air being in consequence forced up into houses having unbroken communication with the drains. In at least one case which came under notice there appeared strong ground for attributing an outbreak of enteric fever to the sewer air forcing its way into a recently constructed house by means of a sink pipe which was in direct communication with the sewer. The byelaw relating to the ventilation of house drains is evidently not enforced, and there is no provision dealing with the direct communica- tions between the interior of houses and the sewers. In some parts of the district there is no artificial means of drainage, and hence great nuisance and even soakage of filth into dwellings results. In one populous district the natural outfall for which is towards the borough of Dewsbury, the sewage trickles away to the Calder Valley, or accumulates in a self-formed pool by a railway embankment. These and similar conditions have long been allowed to exist, because, as I was informed, it is anticipated that any attempt to sewer the whole of Soothill-Nether, except in conjunction with the Borough of Dewsbury, would either be impossible or so costly that it could not be entertained. In one part of the district the street drains do join the Dewsbury sewers.