Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary district.

  • Power, W. H.
Date:
1880
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary 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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    mains of the Water Company have not yet been extended, people still resort as in 1875 to a few bored wells in preference to their surface wells, with the result that many go a considerable distance for water. On this side of Urban Faversham one group only of dwellings, Priory Row, has water from the mains of the Water Company. As regards quality of water yielded by wells of the town, I doubt, for reasons stated in my former report, whether any wells, except bored wells, can be trusted to afford a uniformly safe supply. No doubt analysis of wells has failed to find ground for their closure, but it should be remembered that analysis ordinarily testifies only as to certain chemical qualities of a particular sample at a particular time, and is able to say nothing respecting uniform safety of the well from which that sample was obtained. As an instance in point, a well at the back of Edward Packer’s Cottages in Ospringe Street at the corner of Waller’s Road, has been three times sub- jected to analysis with the result on each occasion that its Avater could not be pronounced unfit for drinking purposes. This well on the occasion of my visit furnished Avater Avhich was conspicuously fouled by waste laundry water from a drain near at hand that was believed to discharge into a cesspool at no great distance from the well itself. In rural'parts of the district, the quality of the water supply and the facilities for obtaining Avater vary very greatly. On high ground to the south of the district, where it is Avholly chalk, wells are necessarily deep, some of them being sunk over 200 feet. From most of these wells good Avater is doubtless obtained, especially from those which are steyned in mortar or cement for prevention of soakage into them through the superficial soil above the chalk. Such wells are not, however, very numerous on these high lands, and thus many persons cannot readily obtain well water; moreover the labour of raising water by bucket and Avindlass some 200 feet is no small matter. Hence not a feAV people use rain water which is carefully caught and stored in these high districts, or they resort, as about Perry Wood, where there are scarcely any wells, to superficial springs or ponds. FolloAving the dip of the land from south to north towards the lower leA^els of the district, Avells sunk into the chalk become shallower and more numerous, and in the area of the LoAver London Tertiaries (mostly Thanet beds) and Alluvium wells become mere surface Avells Avith abundant supply of Avater. Probably most of the shallower chalk wells, when properly steyned, and when their surroundings admit of it, aftbrd fairly good Avater. But much of the water derived from Avells in the LoAver London Tertiaries and Alluvium is of very doubtful quality. Such Avells are in effect surface wells, though many of them are sunk to a depth of 40-50 feet. Almost invariably they are dry steyned, apparently Avith the intention of allowing percolation into them from all levels of the soil; consequently they are liable to befoulment by any noxious matters impregnating the soil in their neighbourhood. A con- A-enient illustration is afforded in regard of StajDle Street, Avhere, it will be re- membered, the water of particular Avells has again and again been analysed and on each occasion pronounced unfit for drinking purposes. The hamlet consists of some 30 dwellings rather closely aggregated on an eminence formed of Thanet beds which here consist of light porous loamy sand. Into this soil the numerous Avells of the place Avere sunk to depths varying from 40-50 feet. None of the wells reach the chalk, and fcAV if any of them are more than dry steyned; hence the Avater they yield must be largely supplemented by, if indeed it be not mainly derived from, that soaking through the superficial soil hereabouts; which soil is of so porous a nature that, as described by a resident, “ it soaks up rain like a sponge.” Besides rain it no doubt soaks up other fluid matters either fouling its surface or leaking into it from non- Avater-tight underground receptacles. To this latter class belong all the privy “ vaAilts ” and many of the cesspools, as well as not a few slop drains, some of which it is obvious lose themselves in the ground. Sources of soil pollution of the above sort are not unusually numerous, nor are they in closer relation with the wells, at Staple Street than in other places. But it so happens that here, the nature of the soil affording unusual facilities for perco- lation through it of fluid foulness, the wells (which are in effect porous shafts sunk to a level approaching though falling short of that of streams on all sides) cannot fail to drain the soil in their neighbourhood. Under these conditions, the Avells receive much dangerous matter, and in the course of time an amount of foulness that is recognised by the unassisted senses ; and it is then.