Note 543 — OF NUISANCES, LEGALLY, MEDICALLY, AND CHEMICALLY CONSIDERED.

On the manufactures and occupations above alluded to, we have make the following observations.—

(1) As the vegetable matter undergoes the putrefactive process in stagnant pools, the effluvia which arise are necessarily highly pernicious; while the waters become so poisonous as to destroy the fish contained in them, as well as to prove injurious to cattle that drink of them. In Italy the process of steeping flax or hemp is only permitted at the distance of some leagues from a town. Zimmerman tells us that the effluvia from this source have been known to occasion a malignant fever, which proved fatal to the family in which it first began, and afterwards spread its contagion through a whole country. Lancisi observes, that dangerous fevers are often prevalent at Constantinople, which owe their source to the hemp brought from Cairo, and which is put wet into the public granaries, and suffered to ferment during the summer. At Helmstedt there is annually in the autumn, when the flax is steeped in the Aller, an epidemic dysentery that prevails for several weeks.

(2) The manufacture of starch can scarcely be considered, in itself, a nuisance, for although it be necessary to produce the acetous fermentation, in order to remove from the fecula any colouring matter, yet if sufficient attention be paid to the operation, and the water be properly let off from the settling-vessels, no inconvenience can arise. A nuisance, however, of considerable magnitude may incidentally attend these manufactories, from the number of swine which are constantly kept by the starch maker, and the profit of which forms a part of his speculation, and which is so considerable that he can generally afford to sell the starch at prime cost, relying wholly upon the former trade for his profits.

(3) The process of tanning involves several operations of a very nauseous description; the hides, for example, undergo incipient putrefaction in order to loosen the epidermis, and to render the hair and other extraneous matter easy of separation from the true skin.

(4) The peregrinations and vicissitudes of fate to which the horse is doomed during life has repeatedly furnished subjects of reflection; but few are aware to how many economical purposes his carcase is converted after death, and to how many noisome processes it gives rise. The dealers in dead horses, or nackers, as they are termed, begin their mercantile anatomy by taking off the shoes and disposing of them to the farrier; the skins are next stripped off, and sold to the tanner; the carcase is then cut into pieces, and boiled in large cauldrons of water, in order to extract the fatty matter, which, being skimmed off from the surface of the liquor, is “rendered down” and packed in cases for the soap-boiler, or the manufacturer of cart-grease. Whatever remains after this operation supplies the venders of dog’s and cat’s meat with a dainty article of sale; at length the views of the greedy trader are directed to the bones of this noble animal; a number of persons find employment in chopping them into small fragments, from which the marrow is then extracted by a boiling for several hours, and added to the fat already obtained from the carcase; the dry remains are employed in the production of hartshorn by distillation; and after this process is finished, they are removed from the still, and calcined to whiteness, in order to be mixed with clay for the manufacture of porcelaine; or they are consumed for the formation of ivory-black.

(5) The intolerable nuisance of a public brewery arises from the volumes of carbonaceous matter with which it overwhelms the neighbourhood. We shall therefore take this occasion to offer the remarks which we are prepared to make respecting the effects of smoke on the inhabitants of the metropolis, and on the methods which have been suggested for the mitigation of the evil. And upon this subject we entirely agree with an intelligent reviewer, that, after all, it is not a few chimneys attached to steam engines that infect the air of London with smoke; every house is busy in the work of contamination, although less observed, because administered by separate vents, and in divided doses.

In the year 1661, a work was published by the celebrated John Evelyn on the subject of this grievance, entitled, “Fumifugium; or the Inconveniences of the Air and Smoake of London dissipated; together with some remedies humbly proposed to his sacred Majestie, and to the Parliament now assembled.” The above “short discourse” has become exceedingly scarce, but the reader will find an interesting account of its contents in the Journal of Science and the Arts. It is certainly a curious coincidence that the attention of John Evelyn should have been first excited on this subject by “a presumptuous smoake issuing from one or two tunnels near Northumberland house, and not far from Scotland yard,”—the very seat of the plots of our modern fumifugists! After adverting to the situation of the metropolis “built upon a sweet and most agreeable eminency of ground at the north side of a goodly and well conditioned river, toward which it has an aspect by a gentle and easie declivity,” he proceeds to animadvert upon that “hellish and dismall cloud of sea coale, which is not only perpetually imminent over her head, but so universally mixed with the otherwise wholesome and excellent air, that her inhabitants breathe nothing but an impure thick mist, accompanied with a fuliginous and filthy vapour, which renders them obnoxious to a thousand inconveniences, corrupting their lungs, and disordering the entire habit of their bodies.” It appears that in Evelyn’s time, brewers, dyers, lime-burners, and salt and soap-boilers, were the principal nuisances; and “since then,” says the editor of the new edition of the Fumifugium in 1772, “we have a great increase of glass-houses, founderies, and sugar-bakers, to add to the black catalogue, at the head of which must be placed the fire engines of the water-works at London bridge and York-buildings, which leave the astonished spectator at a loss to determine whether they do not tend to poison and destroy more of the inhabitants by their smoke and stench than they supply with water;” to which sooty list, says the reviewer, in the Journal of Science and the Arts, above cited, “what astonishing additions have been made, within the last thirty years, in and about London? How many new water-companies, and smoke-producing manufactories have been added to the catalogue? A newspaper cannot now be printed, nor a pound of meat minced for sausages without a steam-engine; to the same smoky servant the druggist resorts to grind his rhubarb and to sift his magnesia,^[544] and upon all possible occasions the services of the other elements is superseded by that of fire.” With respect to the deleterious effects of smoke upon the health of the inhabitants of our mighty city, much difference of opinion has existed; amongst Foreigners the air of London has the reputation of being extremely unhealthy, on account of the exhalation which arises from the use of coal; it excites in strangers, says Zimmerman, a considerable heat in the stomach, and sometimes a spitting of blood, and even nervous fevers which terminate in palsy. (Experience in Physic, vol. 2, p. 137). It is hardly necessary for us to make any observation upon a prejudice so absurd and unfounded; Evelyn also seems, in our opinion, to attribute more evils to the smoke than can be well substantiated; “I report myself,” says he, “to all those who have been compelled to breathe the air of other countries for some years, if they do not now perceive a manifest alteration in their appetite, and clearness of their spirits, especially such as have lived long in France and the city of Paris.” Although we are not disposed to consider the smoky atmosphere of London as so destructive to health as some have imagined, we are not prepared to state that it is entirely harmless. Children are certainly less healthy in this city than in the country; and the superior rapidity with which iron becomes oxidized, indicates the existence of atmospheric impurities. The phenomena of vegetation also offers another demonstration of the same fact; Evelyn has the following curious remarks upon this circumstance: “That the smoake destroys our vegetation is shewn by that which was by many observed in the year 1644, when Newcastle was besieged, and blocked up in our late wars, so as through the great dearth and scarcity of coals, these fumous works were either left off, or diminished, divers gardens and orchards planted even in the very heart of London, (as in particular, my Lord Marquis of Hertford in the Strand; my Lord Bridgewater’s, and some others about Barbican) were observed to bear such plentiful and infinite quantities of fruits, as they never produced the like before, or since, to their great astonishment; but it was by the owners rightly imputed to the penury of coales, and the little smoake which they took notice to infest them that yeare.”

Although some difference of opinion may exist, as to the extent of the evil, in a medical point of view, we must all concur in agreeing upon the necessity of some plan by which it may be diminished; we shall, therefore, proceed to offer some remarks upon the proposals which have been made, at different times, for obtaining so desirable an object.

Mr. Evelyn’s plan consisted in the removal of all smoking manufactories from London, “five or six miles down the river Thames, or at least, so far as to stand behind that promontory jutting out and securing Greenwich from the pestilential air of Plumstead marshes.” He then proposes gardens and plantations in and about the metropolis, and enumerates a variety of fragrant plants, suited to our climate, and calculated to sweeten and improve the air.^[545]

In the year 1682, Mr. Justell communicated to the Royal Society, “An account of an Engine that consumes smoke, shewn lately at St. Germains Fair in Paris.” Dr. Leutmann, of Wirtemburgh, described in his “Vulcanus Famulans,” a stove which draws downwards, so that the contrivances of the Marquis de Chabannes, and others who have burnt their smoke by a downward draught of air were not original. Dr. Franklin in 1785 (Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, vol. iv. p. 408) suggested a mode of burning smoke; but to the illustrious Mr. Watt, we are more particularly indebted for the first important hints upon this subject; his patent may be seen in the fourth volume of the Repertory of Arts for 1796, p. 226; and the great engines at the Soho manufactory have all along been worked without smoke; it is therefore not a little extraordinary, as a late reviewer has justly observed, that in the Report from the Committee of the House of Commons “to enquire how far it may be practicable to compel persons using steam engines and furnaces in their different works to erect them in a manner less prejudicial to public health and public comfort,” and upon which report the bill of last session is founded, no notice is taken of Mr. Watt’s suggestions and inquiries. In the Parliamentary Report, to which we have just alluded, there are two inventions for the destruction of smoke, which appear to have principally occupied the attention of the Committee, and which profess to accomplish the object, with a very considerable saving of fuel, viz:

Mr. Brunton’s Fire Regulator. In this patent a newly constructed fire-place is applied to the engine boiler, containing a circular grate, which is made to revolve slowly upon its axis; the fire upon this grate is fed in front by a kind of hopper continually delivering small coal, which, from the rotatory motion of the grate itself, becomes equally spread upon its surface, so as to maintain a thin fire, and a sharp draught; the coal is thus rapidly decomposed and burned; the smoke at first produced having to pass across the grate, and over the red hot, and already coaked fuel.

Patent of Messrs. Parkes of Warwick.—The principal agent in this improvement is a current of air, admitted just beyond the end of the fire-place, by means of an aperture which may be increased, or closed at pleasure, and which the patentee term an “air valve.” A small fire is first made to burn brightly at the back of the grate; coals are then filled in towards the front, in which direction the fire gradually spreads; their smoke necessarily passes over the clear fire, where it becomes sufficiently heated to constitute flame, as soon as it meets with the current of air entering at the valve; and a striking experiment with this apparatus consists in alternately shutting and opening the air-valve, which is accompanied by the alternate appearance and disappearance of the smoke.

Instead, however, of insisting upon any form of fire-place, greater benefit would arise from an enactment respecting the height of chimneys; our intelligent reviewer, of whose remarks we have so frequently availed ourselves, observes, that by conveying black smoke, and other pernicious fumes into a capacious and very lofty chimney, much of the noxious matters that otherwise escape into the atmosphere are decomposed and precipitated or condensed within; of the truth of which, the chimney of the grand-junction engine, at Paddington, and that of the West Middlesex water-works, at Hammersmith, offer striking illustrations; when these machines are at work, the former produces little smoke, while the latter inundates the neighbouring gardens with perpetual showers of solid soot; and yet the only difference is in the relative altitude of the two chimneys; the boilers being, in all respects, set and constructed alike. A chimney from 150 to 200 feet would in most cases prove effectual, and the expense might be considerably lessened by making one shaft receive all the tributary fumes of many flues. But to return to the nuisance of breweries, from which we have made so long a digression; it is probable, that the smoke from these chimneys could not be remedied either by Brunton’s or Parkes’s patent, but the increasing the altitude of the chimney would seem to promise a mode of relief; we are also to look to the employment of steam as a substitute for fires; high pressure steam has been very extensively employed for this purpose in Whitbread’s brewery, and the smoke has in consequence sustained a very perceptible diminution.

(6) Sulphuric acid makers are continually indicted; and it would appear that by a scientific improvement in the process, the escape of the sulphurous acid, which constitutes the grievance, might to a great degree be obviated. How does it happen that, notwithstanding the cost of the materials necessary for the production of sulphuric acid, is in France at least double what it is in England, the French can afford to sell the article 25 per cent. cheaper than the English? the answer is obvious,—the great part of the materials are sent off into the air, in the form of sulphurous acid, and nitrous gas, to the annoyance of the neighbouring animals and vegetables, and the ruin, too often, of the proprietor. See Journal of Science and the Arts. In a report drawn up in the year 1806 by Guyton Morveau, and Chaptal, upon the subject of injurious manufactories, by command of the minister of the interior, it is declared that the distillation of acids can only prove dangerous from want of due precaution.

(7) The manufacture of Prussian blue is necessarily attended with highly offensive vapours. The first part of the process consists in mixing hoofs and tup’s horns with Russian or American potass, in large iron stills, to which heat is gradually applied, until the vessel become red hot; the animal matter and alkali being thus fused into a mass is laded out into iron pans, where it concretes into solid blocks, technically called metals.

(8) The operation of unfolding the cow’s horns by the application of heat is attended with a terrible stench; the trade in lanthorn leaves was formerly very considerable with Russia; but it was nearly annihilated by an edict of Catherine; the less flexible parts are made into combs; and the tips of the horns are sent to Birmingham for the manufacture of buttons.

(9) Owing to the viscid nature of the materials, it is impossible to make varnish without burning the animal matter, which occasions a stench of the most insufferable kind; and is so suffocating, that very lately two workmen lost their lives in a manufactory of this article in Gray’s-inn-lane.

(10) The animal matters employed in this process give rise to a stench which has repeatedly formed the ground of indictment. The most nauseous part of the trade, however, consists in concentrating the waste lees, for the purpose of obtaining by fusion in a reverberatory furnace, an article which is called BLACK ASH, and which contains, amongst other salts, the sulphuret of soda.

(11) “Renderers of tallow” are persons who convert the butcher’s fat, &c. into tallow.

(12) The process of smelting different ores is the most injurious of all the operations of art, although to the senses it may be less nauseous than those in which animal matter undergoes decomposition by heat, or putrefaction. These evils, however, by the ingenious application of various mechanical and chemical expedients, have in many instances been very materially diminished, and in others, entirely obviated; this is strikingly illustrated in several large works for smelting lead ores; and the proprietors of the Hafod copper works, at Swansea, are at present engaged in an experimental inquiry into various plans which have been proposed for diminishing, or preventing the ill effects which arise from the metallic fumes. Acquainted as we are with the liberality and science of these gentlemen, we have little doubt of the result; and we mention the circumstance in this place in order to recommend similar efforts on the part of persons engaged in other works; and at the same time for the purpose of preparing the reader for some observations which we shall take occasion to offer, on the subject of the law of nuisance, in relation to its operation in stopping works of such national importance. It would be premature to enter into any detailed account of the chemical means which promise a successful resource on this occasion; we shall only observe that the great mischief seems to arise from the quantity of arsenic, so universally present in the ores of copper; and there is reason to hope, from the experiments already made by Mr. J. H. Vivian, that Lime may be usefully employed in preventing its volatilization. The author of the present note has had ample opportunities of investigating the effects of arsenical fumes, which arise from the burning-houses in Cornwall, and from the great copper works carried on at Hayle in that county, and they appear to be especially pernicious to graminivorous quadrupeds; horses and cows lose their hoofs; and the latter animals are not unfrequently seen, in the vicinity of the works, crawling along on their knees; they are also subject to a cancerous affection in their tails; and milch cows loose their milk. The herbage also suffers materially from the poisonous smoke, especially in wet seasons; corn is blighted in the ear, and never perfects its seed, unless care be taken to select at that period such ore as will yield but little sublimate. Cabbages do not appear to suffer in the least; nor are potatoes materially injured; and it is not the least curious circumstance in the history of these works, that the apple-trees in their vicinity grow and bear fruit without sustaining any of those ill effects which we should have anticipated, but, on the contrary, the arsenical fumes appear to destroy all the insects which usually infest such trees, and their trunks exhibit a cleanness which would delight the horticulturist. The men employed in these works are occasionally affected with a cancerous disease in the scrotum, similar to that which infests chimney-sweepers; it is however probable that this arises from the immediate application of the excoriating material made by the hand in the act of rubbing the part. A similar affection was a short time since observed in a manufactory, in which the workmen were engaged in making an arsenical solution for a green dye, used in calico printing.

(13) Gas Works. We have lately learnt, that a method has been adopted to get rid of the nuisance which has arisen from the residual liquor from these works, by evaporating it in pans, placed in the ash-pit of the furnace, and by which the iron bars of the fire-place are at the same time kept cool, and are therefore much longer preserved. The contrivance may be seen at the gas works in Worship-street.