Observations on foul water irrigation : founded on a personal survey of different districts of the city, and an examination of their comparative salubrity, being a reply to certain statements made at a meeting of the Town-Council on the 2d April, 1839 / by William Tait.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on foul water irrigation : founded on a personal survey of different districts of the city, and an examination of their comparative salubrity, being a reply to certain statements made at a meeting of the Town-Council on the 2d April, 1839 / by William Tait. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Fletcher, a much respected lecturer on physiology in this city, ‘ that a person may live as well in an atmosphere containing the most putrid effluvia, as in a pure one.’ The truth of the above statement is strongly impressed upon us, from %vhat we have seen in many of the closes in this cit}'. For example, in many of those leading from the High Street to the Cowgate, every stair, every vacant apartment becomes the depository of every thing that is disagreeable and filthy. One flat alone, those who are curious upon this subject ought to visit, situated in Fowlis’ Close, which, though far from being the most disagreeable either to sight or smell, which we have wit- nessed, is calculated to give a pretty fair idea of the extent to which dunghills within doors are sometimes carried. It occupies an apart- ment of about 10 or 12 feet square, and is divided into two parts by a narrow pathway, which leads to an apartment elevated a little above it, oc- cupied by a poor family who are constantly exposed to its disgusting ex- halations, and who, had its effluvia been highly prejudicial to health, must have fallen victims to it long ago. The ground flats and cellars are mostly occupied by swine, which contribute not a little to pollute the atmosphere in this confined place. However dirty and confined this close is, it is in many respects superior to Blackfriar’s Wynd. Every attempt at a descrip- tion of the latter would come so far short of the truth, that we must aban- don it at the present, in the hope that some curious visitor will, at some future day, contrast its former splendour with its present filthy and wretched condition, and give an idea to the world to what stage misery and wretchedness may be brought. If health is to be found there, we wish no farther proof in support of our position, that odours and putrefac- tive gases are innocuous. The. same remarks which have been applied to animal, apply also to vegetable matter. It cannot be admitted, that marsh miasms are the result of vegetable putrefaction, as is generally supposed, but rather a secretion of diseased vegetables. If they did arise from putrefaction, they ought not to exist in salt marshes where no putrefaction takes place, and they ought also to be produced artificially, by putting vegetables under the conditions favourable to decomposition. This idea is countenanced by the fact stated by Dr Ferguson, that paucity of water, where it has previously and recently abounded, is the most favourable condition for the propagation of malaria; and no where could we expect sooner to find a diseased state of vegetables, than where the conditions favourable to a healthy vegetation become so suddenly and materially affected. The diseased secretion of plants may easily be conceived from that which is produced by the Upas, which poisons all animals that come near to it, and destroys all vegetable growth for a considerable distance around. Although these remarks may be considered irrelevant, they affect the present question most materially. We presume, that as we have no proof of the existence of miasm in the marshes in this city, its absence depends upon the healthy vegetation of these irrigated lands ; but it be- comes an important question; how far a dry and hot season may affect or