Note 50 — APPENDIX. (continued 2)

Mr. W. Stainer, the Registrar of St. Olave District.—In what parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest, in proportion to the population?—“In the densely populated courts and alleys where there are open drains and sewers, and the inhabitants are living in dirt, stench, and a state of wretchedness to be conceived only by those who have witnessed it. Prior to the year 1841 several very unhealthy courts existed, in which some of the earliest cases of Asiatic cholera occurred on the first appearance of that disease in the metropolis, but these have been removed, and the ground now forms the site of the termini of the Brighton and other railways. There are large open sewers completely stagnant through or near them, the smell from which in summer is so dreadful that it is extraordinary how human beings can bear it. The supply of water is scanty. The inhabitants are not more dirty than might be expected from their circumstances.”