Observations on the report lately published by the Health of Towns' Commission, and on the remedial measures therein proposed for England and Wales / by Richard White Young.

  • Young, Richard White.
Date:
[©1847?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the report lately published by the Health of Towns' Commission, and on the remedial measures therein proposed for England and Wales / by Richard White Young. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    carelessness of life and health, which are the invariable attend ants of a low sanatory state ; and inability from youth and inex perience to rear children, the result of those early marriages so prevalent wherever the rate of mortality is unusually high. It , is thus evident that in estimating the degree in which pliv- sical causes contribute to the excessive mortality in our large towns, we are not to content ourselves with ascertaining their immediate and direct effect on the public health, but must take into calculation their influence in calling into existence moral i evils which are in turn fruitful sources of mortalitv. We are thus justified in ranking under the head of preventible mortali- ty, not only that directly traceable to physical causes, but much of that ascribable to moral influences, and in concluding that at least three-fourths of the excessive mortality annually occur- ring among the lower classes of this country may be checked sanatory interference. It will afterwards be shown that exce- sive poverty, undoubtedly a powerful predisponent to disease, is in a great measure dependent directly or indirectly on phy- sical causes. Even were it of any practical importance to ascertain to what extent physical causes operate simply as primary and immediate agents in the production of mortality, I fear it would be impos- sible to do so. This has been attempted in various ways, such as by citing instances where improvements in drainage and ven- tilation have been followed by a marked diminution of the amount- of mortality in the drained districts. In all such cases, how- ever, it will be found that the habits of the people, and often the class of inhabitants, have been improved by the change, whence we may fairly conclude that their increased immunity from disease is owing to the removal of moral as well as of phy- sical evil. With the same view, attempts have been made to show that infant mortality is due to physical causes alone, inasmuch as children are exempt from vices, and otherwise less under the control of moral influences than adults, and hence, that it may be regarded as a tolerably correct criterion of the share which purely physical causes have in producing the mortality preva- lent in any community. But it must be borne in mind, that, although in their own persons the young are comparatively little exposed to such influences, they are so to a great extent through the mediiim of their parents, on whose care of them ni health and sickness, as regulated by the intensity of their pa- rental feelings, and by their character and habits,—their safety must depend until they are able to provide for themselves. The plan has also been tried of comparing the mortality of