§ MR. HARVEY LEWISsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether his attention has been called by the Medical Officer of Health for the parish of St. Marylebone to the dangerously filthy condition of the Ornamental Water in the Regent's Park, and whether he proposes to take any steps to cause the same to be cleansed; and whether he has any objection to lay upon the table of the House the Report and Analysis of the same forwarded to him by the Medical Officer.
§ MR. COWPER,in reply, said, before sanitary facts were attended to the owners of houses used to drain them into the nearest river or ornamental water. This practice prevailed to some extent in Regent's Park, and in 1862 he discovered that the sewage of one of the villas was flowing into the ornamental water. He then succeeded in diverting the sewage, and last year, during the hot weather, the medical officer of Marylebone reported to him that there was a smell from the ornamental water which was very disagreeable and injurious to health. He then had to consider what was to be done in that state 1284 of things, and whether he ought to draw off the water and clear out the mud; but the exposure of decomposing mud would have been dangerous to health and very disagreeable, and he caused two millions and a half of gallons of water to be poured into the lake, and since that time the water in the lake had been higher in consequence of the rains, and no unpleasant effluvium had been apparent. He was prepared to lay on the table of the House the documents to which the hon. Gentleman alluded.