METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL SUNDAY FUND.

189 able volume for many hours. The closets are in small yards HOSPITAL SUNDAY FUND. behind the houses. We did not find water in any of them. The drinking-water was always close at hand, stored in A MEETING of the Council of the Hospital Sunday Fund buckets or cisterns that were unprotected from the dust was held on Monday, at the Mansion House, for the purpose and into which the the drain and effluvia of closet, dusthole, drain This is often and are of stopped up, emptied. slops distributing the amount collected on Hospital Sunday at the slops form pools in the yard and gradually sink into the various churches and chapels in the metropolis among the earth. Thus, for instance, on entering one house we found the hospitals and dispensaries. Alderman Sir Sydney H. the closet smashed and filth accumulating. The dustbin, we Waterlow, M.P., presided. were assured, had not been cleared for a fortnight, and its of the Distribution Committee stated that the The not this At house did belie assertion. the next Report appearance there was no water in the closet, though the cisternwas behind total amount available for distribution, after allowing suffithe closet, and consisted in part of the closet wall. The ciently for liabilities and the usual current expenses, was water filtered through the bricks, leaving a green deposit on .632,243; of which they recommended the payment of the closet wall. As air can pas through a porous wall with j629,664 to ninety-seven hospitals, including six institutions greater facility than water, the closet atmosphere would which might be classed as hospitals, and E2579 to fifty-one reach the cistern through the wall as well as by the door. dispensaries. In addition 4 per cent. of the total sum collected, Here, also, the court wanted paving and the dust removing. amounting to .E1400, was set aside for the purchase of The institutions participating were At this point Wickham-place joins Oakham-street, and is surgical appliances. even worse than the former thoroughfare. At the corner three more than last year, and forty-three more than in house we found a filthy closet, with the pipe broken the first year of the fund. The awards recommended by the Committee included the and blocked up with fsecal matter. Next to it stood the water-butt, where the drinking water was so foul that the following :-General Hospitals.- Charing-eross, West Strand, inhabitants of the house assured us they had seen large W.C., E731 5s.French, Lisle-street, W.C., E230 12s. 6d. ;’ animals crawling and swimming at the bottom. They had German, Dalston-lane, E., E731 5s. ;Great Northern, now ceased drinking this water, prefering to take the trouble Caledonian-road, N., E225; King’s College, Lincolu’s-innof going next door for their supply. The water was so fields, W.C., JE1462 10s.London, Whitechapel, E., E3011 corrupt that even the small quantity held in a tumbler 15s.Metropolitan Free, Commercial-street, E., j6281 5s. ;; appeared to be of a dull yellow colour. The tap was missing Poplar, East India-road, E., .S315; Royal Free, Gray’s-inn. from the butt, so that the water was taken out by dipping road, W.C., .6450; St. George’s, Hyde-park-corner, S.W., jugs into it; and the butt was never thoroughly cleared. This fl677; SS. John and Elizabeth, Great Orrnond-street, W.C., must account for its exceptional colour. At the foot of the .6123 15s. ; St. Mary’s, Paddington, W., E1065 3s.; Seamen’s, butt the drain used to carry away the slop-water was also Greenwich, S.E., E787 10s.; the Middlesex, Charles-street, stopped up ; the yard was therefore studded with deep pools W., E1518 15s.Tottenham Training Hospital, Tottenham, of slop-water, some of them evidently containing a large pro- N., E223 15s. lld.; University College, Gower-street, W.C., portion of urine. The odour was sickening, especially when, JE1004 4s. ; West London, Hammersmith, W., E3097s. 6d.; a slip of the foot, these pools of foul water were stirred Westminster, Broad Sanctuary, S.W., E900. Special Hospitals:City of London Hospital for Diseases ot the Ches4 The house this seemed overflowing up. overlooking slough with a poverty-stricken haggard population ; everything E., E731 5s. ;Hospital for Consumption, looked black and dirty, and it is not often we have con- Brompton, S.W., E1250; North London Consumption Hostemplated a more depressing scene. We entered neariy all pital, Hampstead, E257 17s.; Royal Hospital for Diseases of the other houses in Wickham-place, and in no case did we the Chest, City-road, E225; and Royal National Hospital find water in any of the closets ; but starting from the pan for Consumption, Ventnor, 337 10s. an inch-pipe went straight through the wall into the upper Bishop CLAUGHTON moved that the report of the Distribution Committee be approved, and the several awards paid. of the cistern. these were part Originally pipes evidently Sir EDMUND CURRIE, in seconding the resolution, said, meant as overflow-pipes from the cistern to the closet, but must have brought back any amount of sewer-gas to the while the hospitals and dispensaries would doubtless be very cistern. This would still be the case but for a cork inserted grateful for the aid rendered them, the amount of .630,000 in the pipes. In two cases, however, the cork had either was hardly representative of the vast wealth of the Metrobeen pushed very far up the pipe, or was not there at all, polis, especially when they recollected that from one church while in others the cork was sticking out so prominently alone (Canon Fleming’s) .61000 was received. that it could be easily pulled out by some mischievous boy. The motion was then put and carried. These absurd and dangerous pipes, having been condemned, Dr. WAKLEY, in moving a vote of thanks to the Comshould have been removed instead of leaving the health of mittee of Distribution, urged that legacies towards the fund the people at the mercy of a cork. ought to be more earnestly encouraged, and that if the We could give many other similar instances of closets medical profession and the public were to enforce among with broken pans or traps and fcal matter accumulating patients and friends the wisdom of leaving money to that both under and upon the seat, of slops fermenting in pools fund, to be properly distributed among the hospitals and round a blocked gully, of unemptied and foul dustbins, and dispensaries, great good would result. of unprotected cisterns that contain the drinking-water, The Rev. DANIEL MOORE seconded the resolution, which standing as near as possible to these sources of contamination. was carried. Sir SYDNEY WATERLOW, in replying to it, said he beSurely it is not too much to ask for the immediate remedy of such palpable grievances. Each court. each alley, to which lieved the Fund had done great good in the eleven years in this description applies, may and probably would become a which it had been in operation, not only in dividing the centre for the propagation of cholera. .S350.000 among the medical charities, but in effecting imApart from the condition of special districts, we receive provements in the economical management and the general many general complaints concerning, for instance, the efficiency of the various institutions. When the Fund was lach,es of the St. Pancras scavengers or the neglect of first started they had forty-three fewer institutions to divide the River Company in allowing the water in the ponds to the proceeds amongst than they had now, and that fact fall too low. Weare also told of dreadful smells in the should be remembered by the charitable public. The ComBroadway, Westminster, especially on Sunday nights, mittee had been sorry to allude to the circumstance that in emanating from fishmongers’ shops and slaughter-houses one church (if not more) only part of the collection had been while the entire condition of street markets opens out a vast sent in to the Fund. Not much harm had been done at question affecting public health. The state of the canals must present; but the Committee did not wish the practice to also be investigatej; though in this respect Mr. Wynter Blyth grow, and they would appeal to the clergv to devote the is to be congratulated for having worked effectively towards entire collection on Hospital Sunday to the Fund. OnthemotionoftheRev. CanonSPENCE, seconded by Bishop purifying that portion of the Regent’s Canal passing through the district of which he is the medical officer. Altogether, CLAUGHTON, the cordial thanks of the Council were tendered therefore, it will be seen that there remains much to be done. to the Lord Mayor for the energy and ability which he, as We are better prepared than formerly. The abuses are not the President and Treasurer, had shown in promoting the so numerous, and the laws of health are better taught and success of the Fund and in securing to the Council the understood, but there is yet ample room for improvement, largest amount that they had ever been able to distribute in and there are many dark and dangerous corners that may any one year since the Fund was started. With that the meetstill become plague-spots if immediate action be not taken. ing separated.

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