WORK FOR THE SANATORY COMMISSIONERS.
IT is to be presumed that the activity of the Sanatory Commis- sioners will not stop with the appointment of the new Commission of Sewers : there is plenty to be done above ground as well as under it ; and not a day should be lost in clearing the field for the contest with the cholera.
We should, indeed, resist the still more fatal influenza better, if we had a clear ground. The influenza is more fatal than the cholera, only it is not so fatal in proportion to the number at- tacked—the ratio of deaths to cases is not so high : influenza not only kills more people, but an immense number are ill besides those who die ; which naturally makes us less afraid of it. In- fluenza seems to be produced by damp and bad air ; and we do a good deal to make the air worse than it need be.
Look at the innumerable class called "nuisances." There is Enon Chapel and its burying-ground, so monstrously offensive as to become an object of curiosity exhibited by ticket. MT. Walker, the surgeon, who has worked indefatigably at our grave- yards, will give a ticket to any respectable person who desires to see and smell Enon Chapel, and so to ascertain experimentally its mephitic poison. "Crowded houses" have been rushing to enjoy this exhibition, which certainly beats Jullien for novelty.
Last week, the Police detected an enormous mass of refuse "convenient" to Whitechapel Workhouse and within miasma range of the London Hospital, all collected by a dealer in patent manure ; who was ordered to remove it,—the stench, the "spon- taneous gangrene" engendered among the workhouse children, the stupifying effects to a highly respectable surgeon, and other incidents of the useful agricultural compound, strongly suggest- ing the bad choice of the site for its deposit. Other like nuisances, only smaller, exist in that neighbourhood. A similar reservoir of disease is reported somewhere about " Lock's Fields"; an un- known region, trending, we believe, towards Camberwell.
Indeed, there is not a part of London where nuisances are not as thick as heads in the pit of a theatre. Go to the airiest regions of the West-end—Bayswater, for instance. We know of houses in that quarter, of the greatest respectability, which are sur- rounded by nuisances. For example, one is within range of such odoriferous entities as those which we will enumerate : next door is a recently-established piggery, concealed to view, but not to other senses; a little distance oft; to the South, is a bit of waste ground on which a green-grocer industriously maintains a per- ennial reservoir of gases more pungent than pleasant; the waste is further perfumed by stagnant pools; to the South again, is Kensington Gardens, healthful resort! in which the gardeners autumnally collect immense heaps of fallen leaves, effusing also most piquant exhalations ; and, to fill up the intervals between these treasuries, lie the drains, gently spreading through their open grates no grateful steam.
These annoyances are notabsolutely without remedy; nominal- ly they may be abolished: you may complain to the parish, sum- mon, indict, and spend your money. But the multiplicity of the infliction is its defence. Who can cope with all the ditches and dirt-heaps of his neighbourhood 1 It is an unjust burden to throw any part of the duty of removal on private parties ; a foolish ar- rangement to leave that which concerns a general interest to "everybody." A public officer should look after these matters in every district ; and the simplest act of notification should suffice to call his attention to them. Some might be removed under ex- isting laws ; but if for others the laws are insufficient, let Parlia- ment provide the remedy.
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