The public health a public question. First report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Association on the chief evils affecting the sanitary condition of the metropolis, with suggestions for their removal; and containing the proceedings of the public meeting held at Freemason's Hall, Feb. 6th, 1850.

  • Metropolitan Sanitary Association (London, England)
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The public health a public question. First report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Association on the chief evils affecting the sanitary condition of the metropolis, with suggestions for their removal; and containing the proceedings of the public meeting held at Freemason's Hall, Feb. 6th, 1850. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at that tradesmen are nearly twice as liable to consumption as the gentry, owing chiefly to the hot, close, ill-ventilated workshops, in which the former pass so many hours of the day; that in-door labourers are more subject to consumption than those who follow their employments out of doors, though exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, and earning less wages, and having, consequently, worse food, clothing, and lodging : and that of in-door labourers, those engaged in workshops are more subject to consumption than those employed at home. The poor man’s room, small and mean as it is, is better ventilated than the greater portion of workshops, or even shops. It is difficult to estimate the expense arising from the diseases of which the Window Duties are the cause; that it is very considerable, every inquirer knows full well. Like Typhus, aptly termed “ the great pauperiser,” which leaves a large number of helpless orphans to be reared by the state, or to be abandoned to the casual charity of strangers, Consumption contributes, in an incredible manner, to fill our charitable institutions. In the middle class of life the large proportion of orphan children, whose parents have died of consumption, or other tubercular disease, is most striking. Dr. Gavin, who has examined more than 1300 orphan children, candidates for admission into the London Orphan Asylum, has found, during an experience of thirteen years, that about one-half of the parents had died of consumption. Accidents, fever, and other diseases, made up the other half. Now the mortality from con¬ sumption forms only one-eightli, on an average, of the total annual mortality in England for the last twelve years, while, in the class of persons who suffer most from the exclusion of light and air, the ratio of the mortality from this disease amounts to nearly one half. In an economical point of view, the Window Duties are most objec¬ tionable : the nation suffers more pecuniary loss from them, than the Chancellor of the Exchequer derives revenue. If any further facts be necessary to prove the close connexion between the prevalence of consumption and the habitual respiration of an impure atmosphere, a sufficient number will be found in the evidence in the first Report of the Health of Towns Commission. It is scarcely necessary to point out the intimate relation between an impure atmosphere and a tax which operates as a premium to shut up every window which can possibly be spared, and prevents the opening of any aperture under a penalty. Nevertheless, the following observations.