Facts and observations on the sanitory state of Glasgow during the last year : with statistical tables of the late epidemic, shewing the connection existing between poverty, disease, and crime / by Robt. Perry.
- Perry, Robert, 1783-1848.
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Facts and observations on the sanitory state of Glasgow during the last year : with statistical tables of the late epidemic, shewing the connection existing between poverty, disease, and crime / by Robt. Perry. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
16/44
![T:i?30 aro tlio districts within the cltj T.here cpiJemic dis- <ft.s? is ar.vays iriost prevalent. The returns from the Glasgovr Ropl Infirmary shew a mortnlitv from The fever of 5 per cent. The city district sur- geons estimate theirs at 3 per cent., but from the table of the munber of colilns given out by the to'vn's hospitalto the poor during the epidemic period, it is probable that there is some fallacy, as it is known all the poor on their roll do not apply for cofiin^, and that during the epidemic period there was a remarkable im.munity from all other diseases. If we subtract 500 from 13-iG it leaves 846, being more than the whole num- ber of cofBus given out during the whole of the previous year, giving a proportion of m.ortality to the epi^lemic in the citj of about C) per cent, during the eight m.onths of its prevalence ; but taking the whole at 5 per cent., the mortality will amount to 1500 as the result of the present epidemic during a period of eight months. As comparativelj few of the suiTerers belong to the middlo ranks, being, as a]rea<]y remarked, chielly confined to the poor and labouring classes, a large proportion of them being adults, some idea will bo formed of the a^mount of suffering among the poor, by considering that on an average thej were unable to follow their usual em.plojmcnt, or gain anything for their support for 5 weeks, and coJculating th?^ir weekly earnings at the small sum of 4 shilliijgs weekly, it.exhibits a positive loss to the poor in eight months, of not less than L.32,000. Had this been the result of a strike amon:^' tlio vrorl^men, the whole ^ew^^'paper press would have been fdled with lamentations, but being the result of causes over which the poor had no control, the prer.s has been comparatively silent, and little has been done for their reb.ef. Vv^hcn it is considered, besi^les, that Glasgow has not sulicred alone, but that the epidemic has visited nearly every largo town in thi« country, the effect ought to call forth sorae elioctual means of relief, tivl the devising of measures for preventing the recurrence of a similar or even worse cala- mity, whicli in the present circumstances of the country may with certainty be pre;licted. Credit has been taken for the saving supposed to have bc^n eiTecte l to the commuriity, by treating the poor i!i their own houses, in place of sen ling them to the Iufu*mary, where their keep and treatment would have cost the community about Ijs. or 20s. each, whereas it has been as.sumed that it only cost the public a few hundred pounds. Against this doctrine 1 beg to enter my most solemn protest, and if those who hold](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21451643_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
