Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the borough of Newport / by George Thomas Clark, Superintending Inspector.

  • Clark, George Thomas, 1809-1898.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the borough of Newport / by George Thomas Clark, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/50 (page 13)
    The cost of applyingr the recent Act Uiroughout this Union has not vet amounted to 30oV., a sum which, in all probability, will have been ^ved, by staying the progress of malignant cholera. On referring to the pauperism of Newport and St. Woollos, I find that the proportion is as nearly as possible the same as the proportion of deaths to the population, viz., 1 in 33, excepting the casual and jvagrant poor. The average number of fixed paupers the last half year was 500. “ From these observations I infer, that the condition of Newport is capable of being highly improved. The situation of the town invites the adaptation of all that is essential to the security of health; its growing importance demands that public interference essential to its permanent prosperity ; and the voice of its inhabitants having claimed that protection which they not only deserve but must have or perish, I conclude by expressing a hope that the statistics here given will have some w’eight in securing the object now sought to be attained. “ W. Downing Evans.” 32. Localities of Disease.—The map appended to Mr. Evans’s paper, illustrates also what follows upon this branch of the subject. 33. With reference to the scats of particular diseases, Mr. Brewer, medical officer to the eastern division of the New- port Union, in a report for the year 1839, from which it appears that, out of 216 deaths, 116 were due to fever, observes:— “ A great majority of these cases of fever have occurred in the Briar’s- field, which is situate in the lowest part of the town of Newport. It consists of two or three rows, and several courts of miserable dwellings, which are generally the resort of beggars, prostitutes, and Irish vagrants. The whole neighbourhood is in the most unhealthy state; the drains are stopped, and accumulations of filth present themselves on every hand. Many other cases of fever occur which do not appear in this return, as medical relief is in some instances aflForded by a neighbouring dispensary.” It will be seen afterwards, that the interval of 10 years has produced no sensible improvement in the condition of Friar^s- fields. 34. JSIr. Woollett, surgeon to the Dispensary, laid before me the following statement relating to the seats of a particular class of diseases :— The evidence I have to offer upon the sanitary state of Newport is based upon the experience of ten years official connexion with the Dis- pensary of the town ; during which period upwards of 10,000 persons have required medical aid. ‘‘ It is proper here to observe, that none of these are recipients of parish relief, these forming a distinct class, and having medical officers of their own; nor do any of them belong to benefit societies, which are similarly provided with medical relief. They are a class of people removed from the former, and placed generally under the same circum- stances as the latter; and it may be fairly assumed that amongst those