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The Journal of Balneology and Climatology (v. 6)
The Journal of Balneology and Climatology - v. 6 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON THE CLAY AND GRAVEL SOILS OF LONDON, AND THE RELATIVE ADVANTAGES OF DWELLING UPON THEM BV S. IX CUPPINGDALK, M.I)., F.R.C.S. Object of this Paper.—Mr. P... more »RESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,—The object of this paper is to call attention to the widely spread belief that it is better to live upon a gravel than upon a clay soil, with a view of showing that such belief is probably a fallacy. It is a matter of common knowledge that doctors usually advise their patients to live on gravel soil— patients themselves select it—and builders make much of gravel sites for building purposes, without always stating that the gravel, in certain cases, will be carefully removed before the foundations of the house are laid. A consideration of the facts and figures to be placed before you, will, however, probably show that clay may not be so mischievous a soil to dwell upon as is commonly supposed, but on the contrary may be, and as far as London is concerned probably is, superior to gravel. The scope of this paper is necessarily limited to London. Material is not at hand for dealing with a more extensive area, and if it were, the time allotted to the reading of a paper would be insufficient for the purpose. To a proper conception of this subject, it is necessary to examine (i) a geological map of London; (2) diagrams of certain sections through the London Basin; and (3) certain statistics, given in the form of tables, as to population and death- rates. (i) Geological Map of London.—It is to be regretted that the Government geological map of London could not be here reproduced. The difficulties in doing this, however, were found to be insurmountable, and recourse has been had to the valuable and ready services of Messrs. Bale, Sons and Danielsson, the Society's publishers, for the excellent map he...« less