Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Pollution, Putrefaction, Disease, Public Health, Domestic Economy, Class

    Includes a description of the foul state of the water butts in the 'crowded and close habitations [...] of the labouring poor'. Considers this fatal liquid to be 'filtered sewage' that 'teems with things wondrous to see' including 'fungus-like growths [...] Infusoria, and insects, engendered / Amid rotten wood'. Speculates that such butts might breed a creature as horrid as the Python shot by Apollo, and calls for vestries and guardians to 'improve them, / At once'.