48 CHOLERA IN FRANCE. half the mortality and sickness of those portions that were The probable explanation of such difference will be attri- badly or not at all drained. What is wanted at the present butable to the condition of the subsoil. But, it may be time is a thoroughly exhaustive inquiry into the local spread urged, how can the condition of the subsoil be altered ? of cholera, in places where all the circumstances are known Above all, can this possibly be done before next spring, when and the various factors can be ascertained and determined. cholera may return with increased virulence ? Certainly wa,nt of time, but above all want of money, will render it impossible to carry out extensive works of sanitation between this and next spring. Nevertheless a great CHOLERA IN FRANCE. deal could be done. An entire system of sewers cannot be in a few months, nor can water be brought (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) extemporised to a town in a similar period ; but, if the streets must remain in an unsatisfactory state, there is no reason why DOMESTIC DRAINAGE. the condition of each individual house should not be vastly Necessary Measures and Measures immediately Applicable.- improved. This may not altogether suffice to ward off the ?7M Pail System at Havre.-The Windom Sinks and Slop danger, but it will lessen the damage likely to ensue. In TVater Contamination.-Cholera Dens at Haver, Honfleur Normandy especially there are one or two measures which and Rouen.-Befouling the Subsoil of Drvellings. obviously should at once be applied. This is a matter which - IT is universally acknowledged that good sanitation" is the interests not only the inhabitants of Normandy, but also the British It must be borne in mind that a best cholera, but it is to add that public. very large protection against important proportion of the fruit, the poultry, the butter and the eggs in the term sanitation’’ must be the condition ’good comprised consumed in England comes from Normandy. That these .of the subsoil as well as that of the houses standing on the soil. provisions should reach us from a cholera-stricken country is No. 17, Rue des Galions at Havre. The back yard. Kf we by what appears on the only judge surface we shall often a matter which cannot be be surprised to find that quarters which seem most, unwholesome contemplated otherwise than with and other concern. Fruit and other provisions from 4are exempt, districts, less crowded, less and coming Hamburg dirty last summer were stopped in some of our poor, contribute the larger number of v:ctims to the Northern ports and epidemic. sent back to Germany ; if the much larger supplies shipped CHOLERA IN FRANCE. 49 to England from the ports of Normandy-Honfleur, Havre, the street door open this shut off the corner and ensured at Dieppe-were treated in a similar manner, the consequences certain privacy. When the street door was shut there was. both in England and France would be most disastrous. nothing to check the smells from the tub ascending into the Though it is not possible to build before next spring building. In the wall near the tuba little hole had been made sewers and aqueducts enough to give a proper water-supply so that any liquid filth on the floor might flow out into tho. and to efficiently drain all the towns that are menaced by the passage leading from the back of the premises to the street. cholera epidemic, there is no reason why great improvements Immediately opposite, on the other side of the passage, two, should not be effected in the domestic drainage of the towns more tubs were placed facing each other, under a staircase. in question. Throughout Normandy the subsoil of inhabited There was not room to stand up under the steps and the’ houses is saturated with slop water. The accompanying corner was absolutely dark. A rongh wooden seat was fitted illustrations show how this occurs. For instance, No. 17, Rue over the tubs, but they were not closed, and gave fortw des Galions is one of the cholera-stricken houses of Havre. horrible odours, which passed up into the house through th& This and the other houses at Havre were photographed by chinks in the stairs that covered them. The passage in whichl M. L. David, architect of the town. With him I visited the these pail closets were situated led from the street to an inner houses in question. The Mayor of Havre, acceding to my re- yard surrounded by dwellings four storeys high. In this quest that they should be photographed, was good enough to roughly paved yard there were several costermongers’ carts present me with copies, and the accompanying sketches are and two more pail closets, standing side by side, near the. faithful reproductions of these photographs. The Rue des entrance to the houses at the back of the yard and* just. No. 21, Quai Colbert, at Havre. The back yard. Gallons is one of the narrow streets in the Quartier Notre under a bedroom window. This will be noted in the accom- Dame, running down to the Grand Quai of the Avant Port, or panying sketch, and it will also be observed that the" tidal basin. (See map in THE LANCET of Nov. 12tb, 1892.) inhabitants of the room in question, not content with Entering a passage I found a badly kept urinal. A door on the effluvia from these pail closets, keep a stock of parrots. the left-hand side served a double purpose : it was at once a and other animals. The staircase being in the corner of the closet door and a street door. The closet consisted of a large yard serves for the buildings on both sides of the angle. In and on- tub placed in a dark corner; there was no seat. By pulling this corner there is, on each focr, a large inner room ; 50 CHOLERA IN FRANCE. ’the first floor this inner room, being surrounded by other happens that human dejecta are emptied into the sinks. ’’houses, has no window, no light whatever. Yet this room, into The sink and the pipe beyond are greasy, filth adheres which daylight has never penetrated, has been selected to to the sides, and they give forth unceasingly the worst -serve as a common lodging-house dormitory. There are seven odours. Yet these foul-smelling mouths are just at the beds in the room, let out at the very high charge of fifty windows of dwelling-rooms; when the window is opened ,centimes per night to promiscuous lodgers. On the second the inhabitants breathe air tainted by these sinks. Then floor the corresponding room, in consequence of irregularity the pipes and the sinks corrode, get out of shape, in the shape of the surrounding buildings, has a window, leak and render the walls damp and foul. But this is but it measures only one foot square. On the third floor the not the worst feature of the case. The slop water on room has several small windows. Surely it would be possible reaching the bottom of the pipe does not go to a drain to prevent persons sleeping in rooms that have no windows and and to a sewer; it splashes into the yard; it slowly where daylight can never enter. It will be seen also that gravitates along a little gutter till it reaches the street gutter there is room to construct more closets in the yard, so that the and thence goes to the nearest sewer. The process is well The Impasse des Corderies, in the Perrey District 01 Havre. - abominations under the stairs in the passage from the yard to illustrated in the sketch of the house, No. 21, Quai Colbert. the street might be abolished ; but, apart from the abomina- In this case the. engraving, which is from a photograph tion of these badly placed and badly kept pail closets, taken in the back-yard, represents the back of the house the disposal of slop water constitutes an organic defect which that gives on to the street. The passage going under and "exists throughout Normandy, and this is well shown by the through the house to the street is here seen, as are the slops from photograph. A receptacle called aplomb will be noted by the the dwelling within the yard flowing towards the street, but it side of several windows ; it is a sort of sink. Into this are will be noted that some stones and rubbish have fallen into thrown all the slops, here are cleansed the chamber utensils, the little gutter. This will check the flow of the slops and and here are often left the dirty brushes and cloths &c. used make them spread over the entire surface of the passage. for such purposes. There is no flush or method of cleaning The gutter itself is only a row of bricks laid flat against another these sinks, and needless to say that, as the closets below row of bricks standing vertically so as to form a ledge. There are some distance away and are extremely filthy, it often is no cement used; between etch brick the water can easily CHOLERA IN FRANCE. 51 pass into the soil below, while the surrounding pavement is was six storeys high and the pail closet was at the- so loose that the stones move under the weight of the foot very top of the stairs. The pail stood on loose-fitting and often splash up from underneath black, fetid mud.