Reports on the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Scotland : in consequence of an inquiry directed to be made by the Poor Law Commission.

  • Great Britain. Poor Law Commission.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Scotland : in consequence of an inquiry directed to be made by the Poor Law Commission. 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.

    192/350 (page 184)
    on the following day if any of these days falls on Sunday ; and if any person or persons in such house shall be affected with fever or other infectious disease, the blankets and bed clothes used by such person or persons shall be thoroughly cleaned and scoured immediately after the removal of the diseased, and the bedding used by persons affected with contagious disease fumigated imme- diately after the removal of such person or persons. And where the bedding used is shavings or straw, the same shall be burned immediately after such removal. These provisions and regulations have been very judiciously enforced by the magistrates of Calton and their superintendent of police, and have been productive of most beneficial results. In addition to what was formerly stated by Bailie Rutherglen, I have now before me a distinct statement, by Mr, Smart, regarding the lodging-houses and state of fever in Calton, which enables me to give the following information :—Between 1st of September, 1840, and 1st February last, 319 persons were brought before the magistrates of Calton for keeping unregistered lodging-houses. Of these, 216 were ordered to desist from keeping lodgers till houses registered, &c.; 91 were fined and ordained not to keep lodgers ; 12 cases were dismissed. Of the 307 convicted for keep- ing unregistered lodging-houses, 90 got their houses inspected and registered, 30 removed from the burgh, and 187 gave over keep- ing lodgers and were refused registration—refused principally on account of the want of proper accommodation, and a few for harbouring disreputable characters. Mr. Smart also informs me that several hundreds of the worst houses of the poorer classes have been whitewashed with Irish lime, and the lodging-houses having been put under wholesome regulations, a marked im- provement has taken place. In Whiskey-close, New-street, for several years past, as many as 30 cases of fever occurred annually Since lime washed in September last, and the vagrants removed, only one case of fever has been known; and Mr. Smart con- cludes, I believe there are 1000 fever cases less in Calton this day than there were on 1st September last. Why should not the same measures that have been so successfully enforced in Calton, be introduced into the City proper and the other suburban districts ? Early and improvident marriages are, unquestionably, causes of part of the destitution existing among our Avorking and poorer classes. On referring to a paper which I prepared in 1837, entitled Observations upon the Poorest Class of Operatives in Glasgow, i(and which was published in the Journal of the Stafistical Society of London,) 1 see that, of 3072 cases which I examined, the num- ber of married men was 2273 ; of these 532 were under 30 years of age, (how much below 30 I could not distinctly ascertain.) 1199 between the ages of 30 and 50, (a large number ol these, from the many children they had, must have been married at a