On laborers' dwellings : successes and failures of efforts to improve them by means of inspection, loans, and public companies, and the expediency of extending to Ireland the compulsory principle in their erection and maintenance / by E.D. Mapother.

  • Mapother, E. D. (Edward Dillon), 1835-1908.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On laborers' dwellings : successes and failures of efforts to improve them by means of inspection, loans, and public companies, and the expediency of extending to Ireland the compulsory principle in their erection and maintenance / by E.D. Mapother. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    constructed, and so overcrowded are they as to allow but the average of three square yards to each person. A bill, however, for improvement, with compulsory power, has passed unopposed through Committee, by which the rate- payers consent to tax themselves at 6d. in the £l for five years, and od. for the ensuing ten years. It is provided that the improvements shall not go on so fast as to render houseless the present occupants, but that reconstruction shall go on pari passu with demolition. In Liverpool under the Sanitary Amendment Act, 226 houses in 189 courts were removed or altered during last year. As many other great sanitary improvements have been achieved, the only circumstances which seem to account for the still excessive death-rate of that city is the extreme condensa- tion of its population. There should be also some efficient controlling authority for the laying out of towns and streets. While the rectangular form, with due regard to meteorological circumstances, so common in American cities, is most healthful, our towns, as will be seen from these index maps, consist of angular streets of such de- vious courses as to appear rather the result of chance than design, and blind courts, which are most insalubrious. As yet scarcely any town in Ireland can boast of a wide street planted with trees. In France the dwellings of the operative classes, as well as all other sanitary matters, are directed by a special branch of the state, named u Commission de Salubrite Publique,” and a most effective machinery is organized to see that all houses are built on proper plans, and are pre- served in good order. Some very conclusive arguments have been put forward that Public Health Committees of the Privy Councils of these kingdoms should be charged with the control of town authorities, as the Poor-law Boards are with that of the local guardians. As precautions are often neglected during freedom from epidemics, inspection is then needed to a greater degree than even they are among us.