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Victorian Swansea by Tom RIDD STATISTICAL INQUIRY, the passion of the 1830's, was one of the most potent factors in the decennium 1838-1848 which served to awaken the public conscience of the early Victorians to the importance of sanitary reform. The grisly, horrifying conditions adumbrated in the reports of a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1840, of the Poor Law Commissioners in 1842 and of the Royal Commission in 1844-1845, showed conclusively that an increasing portion of the population of this country was living under conditions which were not only a negation of civilized existence, but a menace to civilized society." The inquiries of the Royal Commission in 1844 focussed the sanitary spotlight on Swansea for the first time. Along with 49 other large towns in England and Wales, Swansea was the subject of a searching scientific investigation by Sir Henry T. de la Beche, a government inspector. Familiarity with the descriptions of previous topographers and local guides is scant preparation for the picture of Swansea given in this official report. In view of the persistent attempts made to attract fashionable visitors to the town, the reticence of the guide books and directories is not surprising. Much more remarkable is the silence of local medical worthies like Dr. J. C. Collins, Dr. J. W. Gutch and Dr. T. Williams, who wrote specifically of health conditions. These writers totally ignored the bearing of sanitation on health, and nowhere in their surveys of local diseases and their treatment is there any criticism of local sanitary conditions. The plain speaking of the de la Beche report of 1845 is far more startling by contrast. A revealing clue to existing conditions is given at the beginning of the report. The geological character of the district facilitated the formation of wells and so provided a natural water supply, but it also created conditions which in a neglected drainage enable the liquid portions of cesspools and other receptacles for refuse and filth to percolate and mingle with well waters." The Town Council, reported Beche, had powers under the Swansea Paving Act of 1804 to provide a drainage system, but these were insufficiently comprehensive to be effective while, in addition, their financial position was such that it was impossible for them to attempt any major main drainage scheme. Consequently, in many parts of the borough there were no sewers at all, while while even those which did exist were either too small or had been so altered as to become hopelessly inadequate.