Substitution of a standard of superficial area for one of cubic capacity in small houses / by John Honeyman.

  • Honeyman, John, 1831-1914.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Substitution of a standard of superficial area for one of cubic capacity in small houses / by John Honeyman. 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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    Reprinted from the Sanitary Journal for September, 1S90. UBSTITUTION OF A STANDARD OF SUPERFICIAL AREA FOR ONE OF CUBIC CAPACITY IN SMALL HOUSES* By jfoHN HONEYMAN, F.R.I.B.A. The growth of sanitary law up to a certain point keeps pace with the growth of a community. We feel that while instinct may suffice for the individual, law is necessary as a social institution; and we willingly assent to such an amount of control, and such relinquishment of our individual freedom as the wellbeing of the community as a whole demands. But beyond a certain point the growth of sanitary law is not so much dependent on the growth of a community as on the growth of sanitary science; and sani- tary science, or rather those who profess to be guided by it, seem to be developing a tendency to make on its behalf demands on the discretion of individuals which are not generally recognized as necessary. It would be easy to show that within the limit of justifiable interference sanitary law in no way conflicts with economic conditions. So long as we are content to compel the v individual to clo only what is universally recognized to be requisite for the wellbeing of the community, of which he forms a unit, we are on safe ground, and economic conditions will adjust themselves to the inevitable circumstances; but the moment we go beyond this, and compel individuals or sections of the community to do what we think, or even know, to be advantageous for other indi- viduals or other sections of the community, or for themselves, we get entangled in complex economical difficulties which cannot possibly be ignored with impunity. For loss must occur where exaction is not balanced by compensation, and social-economic necessarily react on sanitary conditions. For example, if a man earns 4d. an hour, and by working 10 hours a day makes 20s. a week, and you, with the best intentions, prohibit him from working more than 8 hours per day, your inju- dicious interference with his liberty will not affect his pocket merely, but also his health, and the health of those dependent on * Read at the Sixteenth Annual Congress of the Sanitary Association of Scotland, held at Perth, 24th July, 1890.