PUBLIC HEALTH.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Marylebone, 10th December 1847.
SIR—Perhaps you will allow me to adduce, in illustration of your excellent re- marks upon Sanatory Commissions, a fact of recent, but, I fear, not uncommon occurrence, in this large and populous district.
The contractors for the removal of dust and other refuse from the receptacles in the house areas, are expected to call with their carts once a week, for the pur- pose of taking away such accumulations. You will hardly believe, that in the district of which I run an inhabitant, this necessary process has been neglected for more than a month. The dust-holes of the houses are consequently filled to repletion; and the superfluity of rubbish is from necessity deposited in the areas themselves. A householder having lately applied'to the Vestry, which is sup- posed to have control over these matters, was informed that the contractor for this district is insolvent, and was requested to accept this statement as an excuse for the inconvenience and risk of contagious sickness to which his family is ex- posed. A hope was at the same time expressed.by the functionary who forwarded this communication, that after the lapse of some days he might be able to-re- medy the nuisance complained of. When such is the incompetence of the parochial authorities in cases affecting the public health and convenience, it is obvious that some prompt and vigorous agency is required to counteract the evils arising from their helplessness and in- efficiency. At a time when sickness is so prevalent, and when a more fatal scourge is expected to follow the present epidemic, we find an increasing neglect, on the part of our municipal rulers, of the usual and necessary arrangements for the purification of our streets and dwellings. To grapple with evils so vitally affecting the sources of public health, is an enterprise beyond the powers of the feeble Boards to which it is intrusted; and the Government will abdicate one of its most important functions, which shall deny to the general voice of the com- munity some institution more suited to the exigencies of the times, and remedial of those defects in our system of which daily experience brings to light such
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