On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool / [W.H. Duncan].

  • Duncan, W. H. (William Henry), 1805-1863
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool / [W.H. Duncan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/78 (page 67)
    depend upon this circumstance.—The state of the floor has been overlooked. It should have been made a condition of cellars being allowed to be inhabited* that the floor should be either flagged or boarded,, according to circumstances* for many of the present cellars* as I formerly stated* have nothing but the bare earth for a floor. VII. INNER OR BACK CELLARS, LET OR OCCUPIED ALONG WITH ERONT CELLARS, ARE TO HAVE A VENTILATING CHIMNEY, EXCEPT IN THE CASE OE HOUSES BUILT BEFORE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ACT. So that the occupants of the 1*617 back cellars* pre¬ viously existing* are to be allowed to die off as fast as they please* and to have their places supplied by fresh victims ad infinitum.—Wherever practicable* a window should be opened in these back apartments* so as to give a direct communication with the external air; and where this can¬ not be done* a tin tube* opening by a wide mouth from the ceiling and terminating in the chimney or flue of the front cellar or of the room above* might have the effect* to a certain extent* of ventilating these close and gloomy abodes. The only provisions in the act which relate to privies* drains* &c.* are the following :— I. OWNERS OF HOUSES ARE TO PROVIDE PRIVIES AND ASH-PITS FOR THE SAME, AND TO KEEP THEM IN REPAIR. NO CELLAR IS TO BE IN¬ HABITED AFTER FIRST JULY, 1844, WHICH SHALL NOT HAVE ATTACHED TO IT THE USE OF A PRIVY AND AN ASHPIT. The proportion of privies* &c. to a given number of houses* should have been stated, for* without some enact¬ ment of this kind* an owner might keep clear of the penal¬ ties of the law by providing two privies for 100 houses. II. PRIVATE DRAINS, PRIVIES, AND CESS-POOLS, &c., ARE TO BE CLEANSED BY THE OCCUPIERS OF HOUSES, UNDER A PENALTY OF ANY SUM NOT EXCEEDING FIVE POUNDS, AFTER FOURTEEN DAYS’ NOTICE FROM THE SURVEYOR. It is easy to foresee that* in the case of the majority of the occupiers of court-houses* this clause will be perfectly ineffectual; for, even if the magistrates were disposed to levy the penalties from the poor occupiers* by distress* the whole value of the furniture in their houses would frequently