SANITARY CONDITION OF ROYAL PALACES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5243, 12 January 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

SANITARY CONDITION OF ROYAL PALACES.

- (From the British Medical Journal.) The very frequent appearance 1 of late years of typhoid fever among the members of the royal family'has 'riStufally"caused in the public mind ; a feeling of great doubtfulness as to the sanitary condition of the royal palaces. We; are pleased to-know that one of those buildings,; Marlborough House, has been recently so 1 thoroughly overhauled that all anxiety on the score of its bad drainage may now be-dis-missed. The whole of the basement has been examined, with the result of lidding a most discreditable;condition of affairs. Old drains; andcesspools - were found,, the existence of ; which was not even suspected by any person! in authority. . ,No one knew what they had been made for, and they had formerly been cut; off, and were, found ,to be filled with dedom-; posing filth and swarming with rats. Of course,, they have all been removed, and the ground they occupied has been filled in with concrete, j New drains of the most approved description! have been put down. All these works have been ,done by the Board of Works, under Mr. Taylor, the Chief Engineer Inspector of the’ Board., As regards the other royal residences, we learn that Windsor Castle and Sandringham have both at various times been reported upon by Mr. Eawlinson. At Balmoral and Osborne the necessary sanitary works were thoroughly carried out by the,late Mr. Cubitt, who built both houses. At Sandringham, since the illness of his Royal Highness the Princb of Wales, a special supply of pure water is furnished to the royal table from two springs on the estate, which,* though small, produce . very pure water.', The house has also been thoroughly ventilated. The drains were examined by Mr. Rawlinson, who removed all the cesspools. The sewage is now to be carried by drains a mile from the house into the park. Waterworks are in progress, and will be completed before Christmas, which will provide a water tank seventy feet high, capable, of storing 32,000 gallons of pure spring chalk water, to be softened by Clark’s process, and giving a process for fire service of 150 feet.