Appendix to the state of the prisons in England and Wales, &c. ... : Containing a farther account of foreign prisons and hospitals, with additional remarks on the prisons of this country / By John Howard.

  • Howard, John, 1726-1790.
Date:
1780
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Appendix to the state of the prisons in England and Wales, &c. ... : Containing a farther account of foreign prisons and hospitals, with additional remarks on the prisons of this country / By John Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Nothing can be more unreafonable than the pretences ufed among us to juftify inattention and negligence. I cannot help taking this occafion to add the following authorities on this fubjed;. All un- prejudiced perfons muft acknowledge the abfolute neceffity offrejh air and cleanlinejs to preferve and promote health. To this purpofe Vix.Mead writes, in his Dijcourje concerning Pejlilential Contagion.* Nothing approaches fo near to the firft original of contagion^ as air pent up, loaded with damps, and corrupted with the filthinefs, that proceeds from animal bodies. Our common prijons afford us an inftance of this, in which very few efcape, what they call gaolfever^ which is always attended with a degree of malignity in proportion to the clojenejs and fiench of the place. And it would certainly very well « become the wifdom of the government, as well with regard to the health of the towny as in companion to the prifoners, to take care, that all houjes of confinement^ fhould be kept as airy and clean, as is confiftent with the ufe, to which they are defigned.—And as naftinejs is a great fource of infeSlion^ fo cleanlinejs is the greateft prefervative.—From the general pradlice of foreigners in building their prifons near the water, it feems, that they were convinced of the bad effeds of offenfive drains, and of the neceffity of cleanlinefs; and they had no apprehenfions of bad confequences arifing from fuch a fituation. Dr. Heberden has exprelTed his fentiments on this fubjedt in the Medical T!ranJa6lions. f In England few make any doubt of the great danger attending wet rooms:—Is this opinion founded upon experience, or is it a prejudice, which has been fuffered to grow up and get ftrength merely for want of being examined ? If • Page 41, &c. 3d edit. 1720, t Page 521, 524. we