Facts connected with the social and sanitary condition of the working classes in the city of Dublin, with tables of sickness, medical attendance, deaths, expectation of life, &c., &c.; together with some gleanings from the census returns of 1841 / By Thomas Willis.

  • Willis, Thomas, 1789-1881.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts connected with the social and sanitary condition of the working classes in the city of Dublin, with tables of sickness, medical attendance, deaths, expectation of life, &c., &c.; together with some gleanings from the census returns of 1841 / By Thomas Willis. 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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    sarily be more apparent in hospitals exclusively directedto the reception of persons afflicted with contagious disease. Another great objection to these institutions is, that they tend to check the expression of sympathy, and the exercise of kindly feeling, which should exist between the different grades of society; and that they lessen the obligations of duty which we all owe, more or less, to each other. For myself I am convinced, as I am of any truth, that such establishments are injurious to the best interests of the poor—that their existence tends to blunt our better feelings, and beget a species of bastard charity, which is the very opposite to that great Samaritan vir- tue inculcated by Christianity. As I before said, I am fully sensible of the prejudice I may excite by this seeming condemnation of what are considered the moral ornaments of our city, and the results of well intentioned benevolence. But enter- taining the views I do, I feel it would argue a want of moral courage were I, from such a motive, to abstain which it did not appear that a person was twice as likely to die in an hospital as a person suffering from the same disease out of doors ? It is generally said, ' Yes, we admit that our mortality is high, but the worst cases are sent in the last stage of disease to the hospital' Is this certain ? Will it account for all the difference ? I doubt it very much, and I express the doubt in the hope that the question may be strictly, honestly, and conscientiously investigated by some qualified person, who has time to devote to the subject. Until this be done no attempt should be made to extend the system of assembling the sick in the same buildings. The expense of a patient in an hospital is from 7s. to 14s a week What would the effect be of allowing a married man in a fever the same nutriment at home, supplying him with an occasional nurse, and see- ing that his home was well cleaned and kept comfortable ? He would be surrounded by those who from natural affection loved him, instead ol the dying and the dead in the wards of an hospital. Would not this be an excellent season too for religion, charity, and science, to instil just principles and habits into the famiHes of the poor—to ameliorate their homes—so that the sick man may not, as when he returns from an hospital alive and convalescent, be exposed to the same agencies as produced the previous attack T—Appendix to Fifth Annual Report of the Registrar. General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, by William 1' A H R, €S([* E