The Medical Officer of Health described ten acres of houses in Hackney as "almost entirely built upon a great dust heap," built, too, of porous bricks and bad mortar. And another witness before a Select Committee in 1882 described how, in the other end of London--in Wandsworth--on an estate "which practically might be considered a small town," the ground has been filled in to a depth of six or seven feet with filth of every description, and houses have been rapidly built upon it. The results to the health of the inhabitants were disastrous. This, however, by no means completed the description of the evil condition of the buildings. The Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch wrote (1876-7):-- "Not only was the health of the inhabitants endangered by the presence of a large number of old decayed brick drains, but also by many new drains which had been carelessly laid. Their joints leaked; in some places neither cement nor clay had been used, and pipes had been connected with drains at right angles." And the Medical Officer of Health for St. George-the-Martyr added his testimony (1877-8):-- "Not only may the materials of which our buildings are constructed be thus defective, but the drainage may be and is indeed mostly laid carelessly and imperfectly.... An eminent Civil Engineer, one who has had a very large experience in this division of his profession, informs me that 90 per cent. of the houses built are imperfectly drained, that the drains are laid in a reckless manner, the joints often not cemented, and that the way in which they are laid is unscientific and dangerous. No wonder we have continued ill-health of the occupants." The Medical Officer of Health for Fulham described in 1872-3 how in "Fulham New Town" the basements of the houses had been built below any available sewerage, with the result of constant floodings of cesspool matter to the great danger of the public health. And the materials of which the superstructure was made were as bad as they well could be. Porous, and half baked, and broken bricks being used, and mortar mixed with garden mould or road scrapings--"some without a particle of lime in it." In Battersea Fields-- "You will find them there putting the houses together in such a way that you may kick the walls down with your feet."[118] The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel put the subject very tersely when he wrote in 1880:-- "In the construction of houses the only thing that appears to be considered is that of cheapness." Until near the end of this decade of 1871-1881, a building could be constructed without any supervision of the materials, and any number of structures which could not be occupied without danger to life or health might be put up, for no one had power to interfere. The London Building Act had no adequate clauses to secure the effectual purity of new dwellings, nor had the Sanitary Authority any power to check the practice of building houses on rotten filth.