The evolution of the function of public health administration : as illustrated by the sanitary history of Glasgow in the nineteenth century, and especially since 1854, with an exposition of results / by James B. Russell.
- Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
- Date:
- 1895
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The evolution of the function of public health administration : as illustrated by the sanitary history of Glasgow in the nineteenth century, and especially since 1854, with an exposition of results / by James B. Russell. 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.
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![District II.—Dr. Kennedy. All the closes in the Bridgegate, from Merchant Lane to Market Lane, are kept in a most abominable manner. I may particularly mention 101 or Miller's Close, 95 or Mitchell's Close, 87 or Glue and Size Close, 81 or Marshall's Close, 71, 65 or Scaulan's Close; but if a prize were to be given for abominations of all kinds. Miller's Close deserves it. . . . The next worst part of my district is that part of west side of Saltmarket, extending from Bridgegate up to Princes Street. The closes are all thickly peopled and kept in a most disgraceful state. District IV.—Dr. D. Smith. [To the East of Saltmarket.] The tenements in which I have visited are occupied from the cellars to the attics, and almost altogether kept for lodging-houses, many of them being more fit for pig-styes than dwellings for human beings; and in not a few the donkey and the pigs rest at night in the same apartment with the family. The entrance to these abodes is generally through a close, not unfrequently some inches deep with water or mud, or the fluid part of every kind of filth, carelessly thrown down from unwillingness to go with it to the common receptacles; and in every close there is at least one of these places situated often immediately under the windows of the dwelling-houses, or together with byres, stables, &c., forming the ground floor, while the stench arising therefrom in summer pollutes the neighbourhood, and more especially renders the habitations above almost intolerable. The beds are variously constructed, some being merely a portion of the floor divided by a piece of wood kept in its place with stones or brick, ... in other cases the beds are formed in tiers over each other, as in the steerage of an emigrant ship. . . . Need I add to this, that the inhabitants with whom I have to deal are of the very lowest ranks in society; a few of them are labourers, but the greater majority are hawkers and beggars, thieves and prostitutes. At night whole families sleep in one bed ; and as there are several beds in each apartment, several families are made to occupy it. . . . In short, of the moral degradation, grossness, and misery of those people, no adequate description can be given; and few, very few indeed, besides the District Surgeons know the actual condition of the pauper population of Glasgow. The Highland Close, Jefferies' Close, and Todd's Close enter from off Goosedubbs, there fever has pre- vailed to a fearful degree, and all these places abound in filth; are overcrowded with inhabitants, the lowest of our pauper population,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21464546_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
