Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on a recent outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Buckingham / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on a recent outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Buckingham / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    2/14 (page 2)
    Sewers and drains. Closets. Water supply. houses are damp, being partly excavated out of sloping ground, or near the river, which is held up by mill weirs, and is very subject to floods. The soil is gravel and cornbrash, resting on clay. There are no byelaws for the regulation of new buildings (nor indeed of any kind), but the question of adopting byelaws is under the consideration of the Town Council. The sewage of Buckingham is drained into the Ouse, and owing to the way in which the river encircles the town, so that no part is very far distant from it, the outfalls are numerous, and the individual sewers are for the most part not of very great length. The course and construction of the sewers are imperfectly known, as they have been constructed at various periods, and no plans of them have been kept; but enough is known to show that they are very defective. Those constructed in the last 10 or 12 years are of socket pipes, but some of the older ones are brick culverts, or square stone drains with bare earth bottom and irregular fall. There are catchpits in their course three feet deep below the invert of the sewer to retain the grosser sediment. Private cesspools, with or without overflow into the sewers, also exist in the town. The sewers have no means of ventilation other than such inlets as may have been left untrapped, and which are often too near houses. Nor have they any regular means of flushing, the only means being to pump water into them from the river with a fire-engine. It is said that when this was recently done none of the main sewers were found blocked, though some contained four or five inches of sediment, but many of the house drains were quite blocked up. The newer house drains are of glazed socket pipes, but the older ones are of common unsocketted agricultural pipes, or are square “ mason’s drains ” of brick or stone ; and they not unfrequently run under houses. The inlets are often inside the houses, or, if outside, are near the doors, and they are frequently untrapped or imperfectly trapped. No means of drain ventilation have been provided, except occasionally a pipe, usually of small size with many bends, carried up from the soil pipe of an indoor watercloset. Various kinds of closet are in use. The old form is the vault-privy with large deep underground pit, not emptied for years together, but many of these have of late years been done away with, and improved forms substituted. One kind of privy in use has a small cemented pit under the seat; and there are also many privies with movable boxes or pails. Earth closets have in a few cases been introduced, but in one instance seen the results were very unsatisfactory, owing to ashes being substituted for dry earth in an apparatus intended for the use of the latter. The larger houses have indoor waterclosets ; and there are -also many closets with hopper and drain connected with the sewers and flushed by pouring down water by hand. Owing to the often insufficient quantity of water used for flushing, where it has to be raised and carried by hand, many of these hopper closets were found in a very unsatisfactory condition, and an extension of the system does not seem desirable until better drains and a more abundant water supply are available. Some of the old privies are also connected with the sewers, so that these receive a good deal of fsecal matter. The Corporation undertake the scavenging of box and pail privies, and these are said to be now visited once a week (though there is said to have been until lately a good deal of laxity in this respect) ; but they do not undertake the emptying of the old vaults. The water supply of Buckingham is mostly derived from pumps and wells, public and private, but Church End is supplied by a copious and unfailing spring, the Bath Lane spout, at the junction of Bath Lane, Mitre Street, and Gfawcott Boad ; of which more hereafter. The wells in the town are of moderate depth, about 30-40 feet, and are said to yield a good supply of water. Water, however, obtained from wells so situated must be looked upon as suspicious, for as the town is nearly cut off by the river valley from any large extra- urban gathering ground, the water which the wells ‘ yield must be largely derived from the rain which has fallen upon the area of the town, and which